The StarPhoenix August 16, 2012
Although luck stood by its shoulder, it takes more than that for Saskatchewan to overtake British Columbia as Canada's fourth-largest exporter.
It would be fair to attribute to good fortune Saskatchewan's current state of agriculture. A widespread drought across North America and the competition between food and fuel industries for the decreased corn crop, coupled with good growing conditions in most of Saskatchewan provide confidence that most of what's produced in the province this year will command high prices.
As nice as it is to have good luck on one's side, it's typically transient. The innovation and good management - often born of necessity during times when luck takes a holiday - that convinced farmers to diversify into growing more oilseeds, peas and lentils will be there for the long term.
Oil, potash and uranium also play a large role in the province shipping $16.035 billion in products to foreign buyers in the first six months of 2012, but these are intrinsic parts of Saskatchewan that don't rely on luck. They are attractive to foreign buyers not only for their base value but also because Saskatchewan's political system and innovative mining techniques make them reliably and relatively cheaply accessible.
The ability of Saskatchewan's manufacturing sector to thrive despite the recent high dollar is also not something that happens by chance. Customers beat a path to our factory doors because what's produced here - often related to the agriculture and the mining industries - have their genesis in a long history of prairie innovation.
Unlike the auto industry in Central Canada, which is struggling under the soaring loonie and high wages as American companies shutter plants and repatriate the jobs to where workers earn $64 an hour compared with $79 in Ontario, Saskatchewan's exports are going to countries that need the technology and whose currencies have also grown against the greenback.
But the challenge for Saskatchewan comes from being landlocked. It relies on the good graces of its neighbours to get its products to port and, as British Columbia Premier Christie Clark's ultimatum to Alberta on the Northern Gateway pipeline makes it clear, those graces sometimes come at a premium. Farmers are well acquainted with the costs of exporting, having often been held hostage to labour disputes at shipping terminals.
As Lionel LaBelle, president of the Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership, points out, developing better logistics to get Saskatchewan products to markets is critical. This will require greater diversity than simply building better rail service to the Pacific.
With the Arctic opening up to shipping - last year the Northwest Passage saw one-third as many ships as made it through from 1906 to 2006 - Saskatchewan should lobby for more federal investment in ports such as Churchill and others along the Mackenzie valley.
With the Arctic opening up to shipping - last year the Northwest Passage saw one-third as many ships as made it through from 1906 to 2006 - Saskatchewan should lobby for more federal investment in ports such as Churchill and others along the Mackenzie valley.
It also has to try negotiate an equitable way to move products through other provinces and First Nations territory to make sure that when the world comes calling, we have the capacity to deliver.
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