Premier Brad Wall: Saskatchewan

Brad Wall Dept: News : This has been quite a year for Saskatchewan. How would you characterize 2012 for the province?, according to CTV. News : The government is boasting that Saskatchewan is the only province in Canada with a balanced budget. Based on the mid-term financial report, though, some would say it s a razor-thin surplus. Is that a wake-up call for the province and saskatchewan news anchors Rob MacDonald and Danelle Boivin recently sat down with Premier Brad Wall to discuss the year that was and his outlook on 2013. Brad Wall : Well, it s been a year of continued leadership for the province, I think, in a number of categories. When you consider that our economy has remained very strong through the year and there s been a number of statistics where we ve continued to lead the nation. Building permits is one; retail sales is another. Even in GDP forecasts by the major chartered banks and others we are forecast to have a good year and remain strong in the year ahead. That growth always meant challenges. Better the challenges of growth, I would say than the challenges of decline. But, nonetheless, there are important challenges to face, and those would be infrastructure issues; housing. We had to provide some additional money in-year for school boards in the province that were growing in terms of enrolment. That was a first-ever - $6 million here this fall. So, I think the year has been good in terms of overall economic growth. But it s underscored the importance that we remain very vigilant about sustaining the growth and also dealing with the challenges that come with it. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.