Now don't get me wrong - an additional 50,000 people in Saskatchewan in the past three years is great news.
In fact, it's nearly unprecedented in our life time.
To see any kind of sustained population growth in Saskatchewan, one would have to go back to the late-1970s-early-1980s when the then Grant Devine Progressive Conservative government saw the province's population push past the magic one-million population mark. Unfortunately, the second term of the Devine administration was plagued by drought and low commodity prices that translated into the loss of some 30,000 people and the population falling below one million. While not always this dramatic, population loss has pretty much been Saskatchewan's story for as long as most of us can remember.
So the year-end news that Saskatchewan has hit an all-time high 1,047,701 people has got to be seen as great news.
We have seen a 50,000-person growth in Saskatchewan the last three years - a spectacular number that can now be compared with the historic five-year census periods.
In fact, one would have to go back 50 years to 1956 to 1961 (again, a five-year period compared with the past three years) to find a 50,000-increase in Saskatchewan's population. More realistically, you'd have to go back to the census period between 1926 to 1931 - a time before the Great Depression that so defined this province - to see a growth in Saskatchewan that was significantly higher.
Now, some of this is likely related to the recent boom in oil and potash - especially as it relates to construction job opportunities. But predominate Saskatchewan statistician Doug Elliott sees this in a positive light.
Elliott explained that, structurally speaking, very little has actually changed in the Saskatchewan economy from the days when Saskatchewan was losing people. What did change, however, is oil royalty policies in Alberta - one of the many factors that have come together to kick-start Saskatchewan's population growth.
The slowdown in the Alberta oil patch combined with the recession in Ontario and most everywhere else made Saskatchewan a bit of an economic haven. That has meant less young people leaving and perhaps even a few coming here. Add to this a more aggressive strategy to attract foreign immigrants to this province.
More young people staying and more young immigrant families coming here means more young people having families and raising them here. In turn, that feeds the demands for homes, schools, etc., which further fuels population growth. In other words, Elliott believes that this population boom could continue for awhile.
The problem, however, is that while this is great news for the province as a whole, it's a lot better news for some places in Saskatchewan than others.
Certainly, the major cities of Saskatoon and Regina (and their bedroom communities like Rosthern, Pense, Balgonie, White City and Warman) have been huge beneficiaries of this boom. So have the smaller cities like Moose Jaw and Prince Albert.
Other communities close to oil patch like Weyburn, Estevan, Swift Current and Kindersley have also been beneficiaries of this population increase.
But what Elliott said about the fundamental nature of the Saskatchewan economy not changing all that much means smaller agriculture-based communities are not necessarily seeing much benefit from this recent population boom.
So the challenge may be finding ways to create interest in smaller communities not blessed with oil wealth or proximity to major centres. Maybe it begins with provincially funded municipal tax breaks to make country living more enticing or special tax incentives for businesses to locate in rural Saskatchewan.
The challenge for Saskatchewan may not be growing the province as much as it spreading out the growth that's already happening.
Murray Mandryk has been covering provincial politics for over 15 years.
