Making life more affordable for people living in northern Saskatchewan is a big part of a new report that looks at ways to enhance economic and social development.
The Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce released the Northern Business Task Force Report in Saskatoon Monday morning.
The report makes a number of recommendations to reduce costs for northerners such as lowering electricity rates, enhancing energy efficiency and increasing subsidies for healthy foods.
Athabasca Basin CEO Geoff Gay, one of the co-chairs of the task force, says the high cost of living is a big issue for people living in northern Saskatchewan.
“As a business, we find life in the north is really the key issue,” he says. “Cost of living is one of the major issues that you hear from time to time, the isolation, and I referred to the cost of milk and that’s something in the community of Fond du Lac it ranges between $17 and $19 for four litres and in the south we can get that for between four and five.”
Scott Hale, who operates a general store in Stony Rapids, says the task force has done some solid work and hopes the provincial and federal governments will act on its recommendations.
“This task force was basically picking at smaller items and things that need to be done, so, let’s try and get it done,” he says.
Other recommendations include increasing the provincial budget for northern roads annually, building an all-weather road from Highway 905 to Wollaston Lake, enhancing career-training opportunities for northern residents, ensuring Internet bandwidth and cellular phone coverage is comparable with other parts of the province and completing the all-weather Garson Lake Road from La Loche to Fort McMurray, Alberta.
The other co-chair of the task force is West Wind Aviation CEO Gord Gillespie.
The Northern Business Task Force was created by the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce in 2013.