New Brunswick’s fiscal and economic challenges are great but not without precedent. In the 1980s and 1990s Saskatchewan faced demographic decline, economic stagnation, fiscal crisis, and the prospect of perpetual “have-not” status. Saskatchewan today is a “have” province with a thriving economic and a firm fiscal foundation. What public policy decisions and economic developments produced this turnaround? Janice MacKinnon was part of that turnaround and will speak on what lessons other provinces may learn from Saskatchewan’s experience.

Dr. MacKinnon holds a PhD in History and is Professor of Fiscal Policy in the School of Public Health at the University of Saskatchewan. Her political career began in 1991 as a Saskatchewan NDP MLA and was the province’s Minister of Finance between 1993 and 1997. She has since been appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and has contributed her expertise to the Canada West Foundation, the Institute for Research on Public Policy, and to the CBC as political commentator. She is the author of Minding the Public Purse: The Fiscal Crisis, Political Trade-Offs, and Canada’s Future (2003).

The presentation will be on Thursday, February 19th, 2015

7:30am – 09:00am

Saint John Room, Crowne Plaza Fredericton

Online registration only: http://www.ipac.ca/Fredericton/Events

Registration deadline: February 16, 2015