When our finances stabilized, business started to invest once more and our economy started to grow. By 1996, Saskatchewan led all provinces with 3.3 percent growth in GDP, more than double the national average. Manufacturing shipments were up 10 percent, the highest increase in Canada. This trend continued in 1997. Manufacturing shipments are running 18 percent higher than the same period last year, an increase well above the national average of 7 percent.
Retail sales are also up almost ten percent year over year.
Our credit rating has, once again, been upgraded. When Standard and Poor's raised our rating this year, they cited the sharp decline in tax supported debt and our commitment to debt reduction as part of the reason. So with our fiscal house in order, it is time to shift our focus more clearly to the economy, taking the same balanced approach that we used in managing our fiscal situation. But, at the same time, government cannot be all things to all people, an approach that leads along the dangerous road of mounting debt or mounting tax loads. It is our view that, without this balanced approach, you cannot really grow the economy.