A faux boom?

Saskatchewanites have seen and heard about it everywhere. “It” being the Saskatchewan’s government’s campaign to attract Albertans back. Someone needs to sit down and look to see if it is a trend or a spike. In the first part of a four part story in the Calgary Sun, headlines and intro paragraph’s make seem like it is certainly going be a trend. With stories of ex-Pats coming back to Regina, quotes from ex-Calgarians that moved to Regina for a quieter life. Lots of people are coming home.

Examining the two page article closer, one will find that perhaps it’s a spike. The people the articles are mostly business’s buying and fixing up property, an ex-Pat player coming home to work in their father’s market firm, and an ex-barber coming home to rent out north-central Regina apartments. Look at these one must think these are the notables from the people that have migrated and that maybe true, but in 6 months only 800 people have migrated back to Saskatchewan from Alberta. The scary part is that those 800 people are made out to be our biggest migrates and the reason for the exponential growth in housing and rent prices.

It makes one wonder how many more business’s bloated with oil money will come in to further inflate the market. How many more ex-Pats will come home to work for their father’s successful business and how many more slum lords do we need. Is the Saskatchewan is doing the right thing by increasing its tax base, but it seems like they are blowing hot air and just trying to make money off real estate inflation.