Many months prior to the writ being dropped, the ACEC-SK board agreed the industry’s election message must focus on ‘informed infrastructure investment’.  The messages were and continue to be:
- Sustained infrastructure investment is essential to future prosperity and quality of life
- Public infrastructure underinvestment is a risk to economic growth
- Infrastructure investment supports a competitive economy
- Infrastructure investments need to be strategic, predictable and ongoing in order to provide the best value and return on investment

The association continued to put forward this message throughout the election campaign despite some pressure to respond to specific electoral platform planks. While some election messages in part focused on the high cost of consultants, privatization of engineering by the Ministry of Highways, and the negative aspects of P3s for Saskatchewan businesses because of the use of out-of-province service providers, these messages did not appear to significantly resonate with the public. Therefore, consistent direction from the Board was to “stay the course” with the infrastructure investment message.

In parallel, some councilors at the City of Saskatoon were questioning the value of engaging consulting engineering professional services relative to in-house engineers. Thankfully, the Chief Financial Officer published an open letter in the Star Phoenix extolling the value of using consulting engineering professional services. While the City’s future direction has yet to be completely decided, ACEC-SK is communicating with the City to ensure they appreciate the value-add of consulting engineers.