Statistics Canada has released data that shows a 26.2 per cent year-over-year increase of the value of building permits in the Saskatchewan from November 2023 to November 2024. Even compared to the month previous, building permit values were up 15.3 percent from October to November, 2024. In that second-to-last month of 2024 alone, building permits totalled $273 million.
“I’d say the real positive is that we’re almost leading the nation now in building permits per capita, which I think is very exciting and certainly speaks to where our economy is at,” said provincial Trade and Export Development Minister Warren Kaeding. “People are feeling confident enough to be able to commit to investing in a property, so that’s exciting in itself.”
Kaeding says it’s tough to predict if the trend will continue.
“That’s really hard to tell,” Kaeding said, when asked if building permit numbers will continue to climb. “We’re looking at a lot of different trade winds that we’re certainly anticipating may happen, and ultimately, you just don’t know how that’s going to affect the economy of the province.”
Kaeding says uncertainty at the federal government level and factors such as the American tariff threat make it tough to predict what will happen.
“We’re almost anticipating that tariffs are going to happen, so then it’s a matter of how long and how much, and on who,” Kaeding said. “There’s just so much unknown now. There’s so much unpredictability to know how that’s going to affect our economy.”
GDP hits record high in Sask
In 2023, the real GDP in Saskatchewan hit an all-time high of $77.9 billion—up $1.8 billion (2.3 per cent), placing the province second across Canada for real GDP growth and rising above the national average of 1.6 per cent.
“That, again, really talks to the success of the province, and ultimately, who we’ve been able to attract, what we’ve been able to attract, and then really what that means to the average citizen,” Kaeding said.
Private capital investment in the province is also expected to hit the $14.2 billion mark in 2024—up 14.4 per cent over the year previous, and the highest anticipated percentage increase in the country.
This all bodes well for the wider scope international markets Saskatchewan has courted in the past and is currently establishing ties with as well. Kaeding gave an example of a recent conversation he had with the Consul General to the Philippines.
“As we just engaged in a casual conversation and were just talking about the opportunities that we have to support trade in both countries, we have what they need and they have what we want,” he said. “That’s what we’re talking about, a perfect trade scenario.”
Currently, Saskatchewan ships items to more than 160 countries around the world, continuing to make partnerships in markets not even considered during decades past. Given the potential, Kaeding is optimistic what other such ‘perfect trade scenarios’ around the world could bring.
“If we can replicate that across who we currently deal with—just over 160 countries right now—and we add 50 per cent to that portfolio, that certainly enhances our trade opportunities,” he said.
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