Saskatoon Real Estate

Although no province will be entirely immune to the economic downturn, there are 4 provinces that are showing great resiliency and one of those is Saskatchewan. Given that Canada and the US share the world’s largest trading partnership ($1.5 billion a day) it is impossible to be spared from the massive US economic slowdown, however 2 eastern provinces and 2 western provinces will be growing this year…although not without some difficulty.

As Saskatchewan and Manitoba have strong agricultural economies, this is expected to help us move forward this year. Manitoba is set to grow 1% in 2009 while Saskatchewan is supposed to lead the country with a 1.6% growth. On the East Coast it is New Brunswick with a small 0.2% economic growth and PEI with a 0.6% growth. Both provinces have infrastructure and major capital projects on the go.

Newfoundland and Labrador may have two of the worst economies due to the impact of declining offshore oil output and may shrink by an estimated 2.6%. Ontario will struggle due to the manufacturing aspect with the auto industry and manufacturing is also hurting Quebec’s growth.

Alberta’s economy, which is heavily reliant on the energy industry, is forecasted to weaken as oil prices continue to go down and expensive oil sands projects are put on hold.

Overall, the Canadian economy will shrink 0.9% this year which is revised from the autumn forecast of a GDP growth of 2.2%

It is widely believed that the Canadian economy will rebound in 2010, expanding 3.6%. Good thing that the Saskatchewan economy is already strong!

Kari Calder
Saskatoon Real Estate Agent
Century 21 Conexus Realty Ltd.

Many Saskatchewan residents have finally stopped listening to the National News where it is all doom and gloom. The overall Canadian economy is much more bleak than in our province, where jobs in Saskatchewan are plenty. Although we are not immune to what is happening in the rest of Canada and the global economy overall, we have real and high quality jobs in Saskatchewan. Last year employers had a hard time finding enough people to work in Saskatchewan so the province organized a trade mission with the Phillipines and the Ukraine to fill the employment gap.

In November of this year it was reported that employment expectations remained strong and 32% of business owners expected to be hiring more people to their full-time jobs in Saskatchewan.

Many ex-pats are moving back to Saskatoon. As I sell houses in Saskatoon I am getting more and more emails and phone calls from people who are from here and are coming back home, looking to buy real estate in Saskatoon.

Saskatoon is great, we have a lot going for us in terms of many different industries and good tourism, government and high tech businesses.

Saskatchewan is monitoring the economic climate closely, but so far we seem to be weathering the storm better than most.

So, when you are looking for a job in Saskatoon and need a place to live, contact me, your local Saskatoon realtor, I can help!

Kari Calder
Saskatoon Real Estate Agent
Century 21 Conexus Realty Ltd.

What is protectionism? It is the economic policy restraining trade between nations, through tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas and a variety of other regulations that are there to discourage importing. This contrasts with our “free trade” agreement and creates problems. I can understand why, in theory, President Obama wants to put this in place to stimulate the American Economy, but would it do more harm than good? It certainly shows a lot about the United States of America’s need to preserve themselves but doesn’t it show some disregard to the other nations that they have been dealing with for centuries? When the tough get going…the US puts on the brakes?

Should Canada get on the same train as the president of the United States? The huge economic stimulus plan was passed and is called a ‘good start’. He has made it his mission to stimulate the US economy and warns of a deepening financial crisis unless the bill is passed.

On February 14th, 2009 the G7 leaders rejected trade protectionism. They agreed that each needs to get their stimulus packages flowing as quickly as possible and to improve access to financing but the also cautioned against trade protectionism. It seems that any of these measures taken now would be regretted down the road and that was spoken by Canadian Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty. It is short sighted.

At the debut of US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, he assured his counterparts that President Barack Obama’s $787 billion US plan to resuscitate the economy, which has been approved, would not violate in any way the United State’s commitment to free trade.

Canada and the US have the world’s biggest trading relationship with more than $1.5 billion a day.

Kari Calder
Saskatoon Real Estate Agent
Century 21 Conexus Realty Ltd.