Emsi responded to a Sask Polytech request for proposal. Emsi has delivered more than 2,000 socio-economic impact studies, including over 200 universities, colleges, institutes and polytechnics across Canada. Emsi also completed a national study demonstrating the economic impact of all member institutions of Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) in 2016.

While Sask Polytech is crucial to the provincial economy in a number of ways, the direct economic contributions of the institution have not recently been reported.

Economic impact analysis quantifies the impact from a given economic event – in this case, the presence of Saskatchewan Polytechnic – on the Saskatchewan economy.

Investment analysis is a standard method for determining whether or not an existing or proposed investment is economically viable. This methodology is appropriate in situations where a stakeholder puts up a certain amount of money with the expectation of receiving benefits in return, where the benefits that the stakeholder receives are distributed over time, and where a discount rate must be applied in order to account for the time value of money.

The project was completed in two months. Saskatchewan Polytechnic provided EMSI the data input requirements leveraging the expertise and figures from many business units including:  Institutional Research & Analysis, Applied Research, Financial Services, and Human Resources.

Yes. Regional economic data are drawn from Emsi’s proprietary CRIO model, Statistics Canada and other sources to reflect the specific earnings levels, jobs numbers, unemployment rates, population demographics, and other key characteristics of the province of Saskatchewan.

Sask Polytech will use this information to inform conversation with the Government of Saskatchewan and key stakeholders across Saskatchewan and Canada.

Sask Polytech’s economic impact analysis results should be seen as unique to Sask Polytech. Labour market analytics firms use different methodologies and comparison of reports can result in discrepancies.

For example, many post-secondary institutions do not measure the economic impact of their alumni. The report completed by Emsi for Sask Polytech does measure the impact of our alumni.

Which would you rather have: a dollar right now or a dollar 30 years from now? That most people will choose a dollar now is the crux of net present value. The preference for a dollar today means today’s dollar is therefore worth more than it would be in the future (in most people’s opinion). Because the dollar today is worth more than a dollar in 30 years, the dollar 30 years from now needs to be adjusted to express its worth today. Adjusting the values for this “time value of money” is called discounting and the result of adding them all up after discounting each value is called net present value.

Using the bank as an example, an individual needs to decide between spending all of their paycheck today and putting it into savings. If they spend it today, they know what it is worth: $1 = $1. If they put it into savings, they need to know that there will be some sort of return to them for spending those dollars in the future rather than now. This is why banks offer interest rates and deposit interest earnings. This makes it so an individual can expect, for example, a 3% return in the future for money that they put into savings now.

Big numbers are great, but putting it into perspective can be a challenge. To add perspective, find an industry with roughly the same “% of GSP” as your Institution. This percentage represents its portion of the total gross state product in the region (similar to the nationally recognized gross domestic product but at a regional level). This allows the institution to say that their single brick and mortar campus does just as much for Saskatchewan as for example the entire Utilities industry, for example. This powerful statement can help put the large total impact number into perspective.