Saskatchewan has always had some unique opportunities and challenges before it as a province ­ and at times it seems the challenges outweigh the opportunities by a far margin.

Chief among the challenges is the out-migration of residents that has been evident for years. All over the country one can find former residents of the province who moved there for a better chance than was available at home.

This problem became bad enough there was a joke that said a sign should be posted on the Saskatchewan-Alberta border: "The last ones to leave please turn out the lights."

Unfortunately, the trend is still carrying on, and it's not a joke. As people leave for "greener pastures" elsewhere and deplete our population, it leaves a smaller group who still have to pay for mostly the same level of services such as health, education, highways and infrastructure.

The question is, how do we reverse the trend?

The Saskatchewan Party thinks they know a way, setting an impressive goal to finally break the "glass ceiling" of one million residents by growing the population by 100,000 people over the next decade.

To do that, they say, you primarily need to cut taxes: personal income taxes, corporate taxes, and eliminate the small business tax altogether.

This is certainly a lofty goal, and a worthy one if they can indeed achieve it ­ but is it prudent to cut one's income while trying to maintain a certain level of services or improve them, to help attract some of those 100,000 people into the province? For example, how do we fix the many highways or municipal water systems if there's less cash to go around?

Reducing taxes in some areas to make the province more competitive with, say, Alberta, is also a good goal, if you can afford it. The trouble is, while we do have an active oil and gas sector, it's a fraction of what Alberta has, and subsequently we have a fraction of the money (and population) that Alberta has.

There does have to be a reasonable effort made in this direction anyway, if we are going to succeed in drawing investment dollars here, and get more projects like PanCanadian's CO2 project set up around the province, along with the development of small businesses.

What about the ruling NDP? Their cabinet and premier toured the province during the month of August, and heard a lot of concerns as well as seeing a lot of good ideas for small businesses making it here.

Their new department of Rural Revitalization, newly passed on to Ag minister Clay Serby, has a tough road ahead of it, but if there are ideas formed from touring the province and talking to residents, let's start hearing them, and seeing the response in government programs or initiatives.

There will always be a role for the government to play, with such services as education and health care to maintain for its residents; there comes a time, too, when the residents themselves, and businesses and communities, need to pull together and work together. That glass ceiling can indeed be broken, but only with everybody pulling in the same direction, aiming for the same goal ­ and that will benefit everybody, regardless of political stripe. - G.N.