Opinion: Sask. needs to ask questions on failures amid growth

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I’ve dedicated my career to the growth of Saskatchewan — as past vice-president for Western Canada for the Canadian Federation for Independent Business, as past CEO of both the Saskatoon Regional Economic Development Authority and the Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership and as a former deputy minister of enterprise and innovation.

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In the last 15 years, I’ve also coached, mentored and trained hundreds of other leaders to develop and grow their organizations. But it is more important to see growth as a means to a much bigger end, and not as an “end game” in itself.

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I’m using my experience (and old age) as a pulpit to preach to the current generation of leaders — both in government and in business. I know the joy of creativity that comes from entrepreneurship and the exhilaration that comes with pride of independent ownership.

And I have worked in the “marble palace” and experienced a similar exhilaration of changing laws, institutions and policies that can impact whole economies. But I urge all our current “economic warriors” to ask themselves a question. Economic development for what? Growth for what?

I did not toil in the trenches to have a higher Saskatchewan GDP that just results in:

° One of the highest child poverty rates in Canada.

° The highest rates of domestic violence in Canada (mostly against women).
° The equivalent of an entire “new town” in Saskatchewan composed entirely of the homeless populations in Saskatoon and Regina.
° A province with the dubious distinction of spewing among the highest per capita emissions of greenhouse gasses in the entire world. (And note: the looming climate crisis is about science, not political convenience. It is an evidence-based assessment based on the alarming data and measurement of accelerating trends. It is not a political ideology. The next generation understands this).
° Growing disparity in educational outcomes and classroom experiences.
° A “new normal” of emergency medicine delivered in hallways and for increasing hours of prolonged suffering and wait times. (We now dread the prospect of one day going to an ER).
° A hollowing out of rural areas due to a plethora of unco-ordinated and under-populated fiefdoms, and with land ownership or foreign interests increasingly removed from local people.
° Over $800 million of our annual provincial spending on just servicing the government’s accumulated “credit card” debt, as we relentlessly continue to borrow against the future of our kids.
° Our dismal distinction as Canada’s leader in sexually transmitted diseases, death rates from AIDS, violent crime rates … and on and on and on.

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Economic development for what? For this?!?

I wish I thought more about these linkages when I was “in my prime.” Mea culpa. I wish the question of “economic development for what?” would now be more prominent within the hearts and minds of business advocates, or on the agenda of more chambers of commerce meetings.

And instead of gushing press releases on “growth of wholesale trade” or cherry-picking other obscure stats, I wish the Saskatchewan Party would start publishing more of the quality-of-life indicators as well. We are what we measure, and we measure what we care about.

Finally, I wish all political leaders — at all levels — would think beyond short four-year terms and focus on these serious and longer-term issues. It’s not about the less than one per cent of a youth population that may or not use the “appropriate” change room.

It’s way too easy to just blame Ottawa rather than face up to our own serious obligations and responsibilities. Who will we try to blame, instead, after Trudeau moves on? Grow up. Buck up. Less play acting and more civility and seriousness.

In 2025, it’s time to start asking that bigger question: “For what?” It’s time to lead and govern and engage in enterprise with broader meaning and purpose, and not just with greed or political expediency.

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I’m sorry my generation failed a lot when it was our time. With these failing hands, we pass the torch of the next quarter century on to you!

Dale Botting is a retired business leader and former Saskatchewan deputy minister who is the founder and president of Saskatoon-based Global Alliance for Professionals in Leadership Development.

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