Provincial government employment numbers continue to fall in Moose Jaw at an alarming rate, causing concern among city councillors.

In a report sent to city council on Monday, Moose Jaw saw a decline of 14.5 per cent last year, while three cities saw a slight increase.

Moose Jaw saw the largest decrease of all cities in Saskatchewan, over three times that of other locations.

Mayor Fraser Tolmie gave several examples where he felt Moose Jaw was treated unfairly by the provincial government. He said the new hospital in Prince Albert will be fully funded, while the city had to pay 20 per cent for the F.H. Wigmore Regional Hospital.

He added that they’ve had to jump through hoops for transit funding that was approved last year, other communities are getting more funding for policing and revenue from Moose Jaw speed cameras are going to other communities.

“We have recently reached out to the province, I did speak to the Deputy Premier with regards to all of these concerns and said we would like to have an open dialogue for our council to be able to sit down with them and talk about all these concerns because our council isn’t very happy about it,” Tolmie said.

One of the key findings in the report was the downslide in employment and funding for Moose Jaw’s Saskatchewan Polytechnic campus.

The report says the Moose Jaw campus has it’s lowest number of full-time equivalent (FTE) positions since 1995, a drop of 22 per cent. Saskatoon’s campus has seen an increase of almost 50 per cent.

“I hear all of these programs being sent up to Saskatoon, particularly in the culinary area. I think Saskatoon has a food truck program for the culinary students,” said Coun. Crystal Froese.

“They have all types of different things going on there. But yet our campus continues to be neglected.”

As for funding, capital expenditures at the Moose Jaw campus over the past two years has dropped to 3.5 per cent and five per cent of total expenditures among all campuses.

The report also noted an increase of 7.5 FTE positions at the Water Security Agency, three FTE positions lost at SaskTel and the closing of Valley View Centre.

The full report is available on the City of Moose Jaw's website.