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“They (the Sask. Party government) are taking too much credit for the boom, when they didn’t have a lot to do with it,” Elliott said, adding the same oil-related job boom would have “likely happened under the (previous) NDP” government, which was generally seen as friendly to the oil sector.

Elliott also noted the current job creation record — a mere .9 per cent in January and only a .5-per-cent increase in 2015 — is “not that great.”

“This (job creation rate) is about how it was in the bad old days,” Elliott said. “But it is better than I would have predicted (with today’s oil prices).”

Also, Saskatchewan has a new, unfamiliar problem: Rising unemployment. The NDP Opposition noted last week that unemployment in January increased by 8,000 people — a “record, all-time high of 36,600 people unemployed in Saskatchewan.”

Elliott agreed the province’s past unemployment rate was kept artificially low because those looking for work would just move to Alberta. Now, Saskatchewan is experiencing an unusual phenomenon of both increasing unemployment (brought about by those oil patch layoffs) and more jobs (brought about by a rising population where immigrants seem less fussy about taking minimum-wage jobs.)

“The folks that got laid off in the oil patch aren’t going to work at Wal-Mart,” Elliott said.

But Elliott also argued Wall and company may not be getting their due for today’s more modest job creation rate.

Those concerned about rising government debt might not like it, but infrastructure spending — clearly, a policy choice of government that is resulting in bypasses, stadiums and children’s hospitals — is contributing to Saskatchewan’s current rise in job numbers and preventing the unemployment rate from being higher than it currently is.