Kids moving to play on stronger teams, parity, competitive advantage etc. etc. rinse, repeat..
In my opinion there is only one solution: AAA Bantam (heaven forbid)
But... Awfully difficult to have your 14 year old son move away to play hockey, live in a city, go to a new school etc. etc.
Sask is big, really big. Its also sparsely populated and therefore the variance in talent from one year to the next is magnified many many times because 'strong' years and 'weak' years are so obvious. Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto do not have this type of swing - we do - get over it.
My solution: Leave everything alone. There will always be those families that bend/break the rules to get on a team. We have great hockey people all over the province. SHA does a great job despite the warts - but its the same everywhere. Sports and kids and competition is a passionate business, overly emotional and generational - a nasty combination that invites opinionated forums!
Setting up an 'us vs them' or 'rural vs city' mentality in a small province is likely unavoidable. But - stop it anyways - conspiracy does not exist in Sask! However, what makes us strong also makes us weak... Sask is very unlikely to compete at western championships or 'team sask' events unless its a 'strong' year. Too many on this forum point to coaching or SHA as having a HUGE effect on development. They don't. Practice, practice, and more practice is the secret. Back in our day it was shinny, shinny and more shinny - less organization, more fun, more play, more freedom. Gretzky wasn't a generational talent because he had amazing coaches. Crosby shot pucks in the basement until his hands bled - practice. Rural kids with easy access to rinks and shinny often develop much quicker than city kids. However, when comparing to a large city the numbers of kids start to equalize the naturally gifted kids in the city to the rural kids.
Nothing is wrong. Sask will always be what it always has been. Strong families with strong values encouraging work ethic and sacrifice despite rural/city allegiance. Most have dual ties anyways.
So quit the blaming and start enjoying what we have. Merry Christmas.