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Growing Saskatchewan Population Requires Smarter Infrastructure Investments

By Hugh Hudson

Premier Wall’s recent trip to a national job fair in Toronto to convince out-of-work Ontarians and post-secondary graduates to move to Saskatchewan sets up an interesting good news/bad news dynamic.

Good, in that we currently enjoy the lowest unemployment rate and the strongest job growth of any province. Our success is attracting newcomers -- immigration helped push our population to almost 1,025,000 last year, a 20-year high. About 60 per cent of those who moved here settled in the largest urban centres.

Bad, in that more city-dwellers means more people using water, hydro and roads. And while the government, as part of its economic recovery plan, is spending almost $50 billion on infrastructure funding, to fix those systems or address increased demand, the question remains: What’s the best way to spend the money?

Obviously, completely replacing a city’s infrastructure is cost-prohibitive – it would take more than $120 billion to fix Canada’s aging infrastructure. But there’s a better way. A technological transformation will allow us to equip existing infrastructures with new intelligence, to help make them more sustainable, and more responsible.

Take water, for example. In Saskatchewan, agriculture uses about 67per cent of our fresh water and communities use about 21 per cent. As communities grow, so too will that demand. Compounding that issue is the fact global warming is shrinking the glaciers that feed the sources of the Saskatchewan River. River flows are declining, by as much as 40 per cent over the past 75 years in some cases.

Embedding simple, low-cost sensors that gather, analyze, store and share digital information in water management systems would provide city administrators with the ability to improve the management of water supply and demand.  Building a new computer-modeling framework would allow users to simulate the behavior of river basins, helping inform policy and management decisions that conserve the natural environment and provide better stewardship for this shrinking but vital resource.
Power grids are another area ripe for technological transformation. Today’s electricity grids are incredibly wasteful. With little or no intelligence to balance loads or monitor power flows, enough electricity is lost annually to power all of Canada for an entire year.
The same digital sensors that monitor water can also help utilities better gauge and control energy flow and allow consumers to better manage energy consumption. The technology can also make it easier to bring alternative energy sources such as wind and solar power online.
These are two examples of where smarter infrastructure investments could pay big dividends for Saskatchewan. With 95 per cent of what we produce here coming directly from natural resources, the backbone of our economy depends on our ability to effectively manage those resources. In this case, smarter uses of the digital tools we have available will ensure the legacy of Saskatchewan’s success continues.

Hugh Hudson is IBM's Public Sector Government and Healthcare Client Executive and is based in Regina.