The way we have decided to inhabit Saskatchewan is a blessing and a curse.
As we climb into 2012, I look around and can't help but wonder what we're going to do in the next 10 to 15 years to address the disparity of population disbursement. Our government is boasting how our population is "booming" with an additional 5,000 people over the past few months and I guess everything is relative. After all, 5,000 is probably a one-week population increase for the city of Toronto alone, let alone Ontario. But in Saskatchewan, it's still big news. It's better than the declines we had become used to a few years ago.
So here we are, just under 1.1 million strong and we're strung out everywhere. We didn't decide to just settle in five key locations. Nope. Our ancestors determined that they had to be everywhere. Of course the pioneer farming set-ups had a lot to do with that. But even as the farming business evolved into large entities rather than the smaller family farm half-sections, we stubbornly decided we still wanted to live in our hamlets, villages, towns and small cities.
There have been steady movements into Regina and Saskatoon. Rural Saskatchewan, in terms of percentages, is less than before, but in terms of actual numbers ... well, it seems as if rural Saskatchewan is holding its own. After all, big or small, it's tough to run a combine down Albert Street. They don't grow much wheat in Wascana Park.
Our later pioneers went looking for minerals and found them, and they didn't find them in the centre of Saskatoon or Regina or even Prince Albert, but cities like PA and Estevan sprung up because of them. Somebody had to go out and bring in the coal to deliver electricity and they couldn't do it from Victoria Avenue ... although they put a big office there, they didn't want the coal delivered there.
The guys in Saskatoon and Regina didn't want to be bothered by the oil tankers and pipelines draining into their pristine environments. Although Regina did decide to refine some of it and decided to make some new steel out of wrecked vehicles, for the most part, the suit and vest crowd didn't want to get their hands dirty. Estevan, Weyburn, Kindersley, Lloydminster, Swift Current and nearby points would have to handle those chores. So we did.
Our pioneering great grandparents and grandparents started a lot of stuff from scratch. They built new businesses in communities that had just a few hundred people, or at the most a few thousand. And they made it work. They found one another, played games, built up rivalries, dated, married, had children and generally made it work. And when the need arose, they started another town.
Once again we have changing demographics. We recognize that there is a need to congregate. We see it every day as we're forced to amalgamate our resources. Not every town of 500 people will be able to get a doctor or a dentist, a hospital, school, grain elevator, law firm or a newspaper. It's not like the good old days. We are no longer content with "make do." We want the full deal, but that is hard to deliver effectively if there are only 400 of you. Two thousand ... maybe something can be done, but 300 or 400? That's a tough order when all signals point to efficiencies that only come with size.
But then the argument is raised that big is not necessarily better. And that argument bears weight because smaller, boutique-like businesses and services can succeed and we see examples of that every day. That's when the delightful can-do spirit of our pioneer ancestors forces itself into the foreground.
As a result, we have decided to spread ourselves all over this fantastic province and we then turn to our government and other leaders and challenge them to give us the best services available and "what are you gonna do about it?"
Yep, we have some interesting proposals heading our way within the next few years. I believe this will be a story with several more chapters to be written before we even get to the part where the plot thickens.
