There was nothing worse as a kid than realizing your little punk neighbour had surpassed you at something. It didn’t matter what it was; if you ruled the playground, it was supposed to stay that way — forever.

Manitobans are reluctantly coming to grips with Saskatchewan — the “punk” immediately to the west that’s been the butt of countless jokes over the years — now leapfrogging the Keystone province on numerous vital economic metrics.

For example, the average weekly wage in Saskatchewan is $727.42, well ahead of Manitoba’s $703; Saskatchewan’s unemployment rate is 3.8% compared to Manitoba’s 4.2%; and real estate values in Saskatoon have risen a whopping 49% from a year ago, almost quintupling the increase in Winnipeg.

It’s all a little tough to take considering the doomsday scenario making the rounds before the departure of the National Hockey League’s Winnipeg Jets to Phoenix back in 1996. Back then, it was said, professional hockey was all that kept Winnipeg from becoming “another Regina.”

Recollection of such talk evokes a chuckle from Larry Hiles, president and CEO of the Regina Economic Development Authority. “It would be a pretty attractive goal for Winnipeg to become another Regina,” he says. Ouch.

One of the biggest changes to occur in Regina, says Hiles, was the attitude of its citizens: “Instead of waiting for the government to look after them, they’ve taken responsibility for making things happen. They’re not afraid to say, ‘Regina is a great place to live; you’re going to like it here,’ as opposed to ‘Why did you move here? What did you do wrong?’ The change in attitude is a prerequisite to everything else that’s the building block.”

Doug Elliot, a consultant in Regina who publishes a monthly newsletter on economic, social and demographic trends, says with nominal gross domestic product growing by 2%-3% annually, by Saskatchewan standards, the province is experiencing a boom.

“We’re used to growth rates of 0.5% or 1%; some years it goes down,” he says.

Other positives include consumer spending rising by more than 8% from a year ago, international exports increasing by a similar amount and the manufacturing sector doing “reasonably well,” despite the trajectory of the loonie. Even the population rose by about 1,000 people over the past year, boosted in part by expatriates returning from Calgary.

Saskatchewan’s assistant deputy minister of finance, Kirk McGregor, says the province is simply reaping the benefits of the government’s decision in 2001 to revamp its personal and corporate taxes to compete with Alberta.

General corporate taxes were 17% last year, and they’re scheduled to come down to 12% by next summer; at the same time, corporate capital taxes, which are 0.6% of a company’s assets, are scheduled to be eliminated completely. In addition, the provincial sales tax was lowered last fall to 5% from 7%. Taxes are now lower in Saskatchewan than they are in Manitoba virtually across the board.

McGregor says there’s no doubt the strength of Saskatchewan’s resources sector has enabled it to be aggressive on the tax front, but the groundwork was done well before oil prices went through the roof.

“The first step is creating the right environment for capital formation in Saskatchewan. Jobs follow capital,” he says. “Capital is so mobile in today’s society, jurisdictions all have to compete.”

What about the competition with Manitoba? “We don’t compete with Manitoba. We’re trying to chase where the puck is going as opposed to where it’s been,” Hiles says.

That smugness is a little annoying, isn’t it? At least the little punk has showed us what we have to do to knock him back down to size. IE