麻豆视频

Premier Brad Wall made what is becoming his annual fundraising trip to Alberta, this past week, to speak to industry friends at the Petroleum Club.

The effort was, no doubt, rewarding for both the industry players and Saskatchewan鈥檚 first minister.

Saskatchewan has become one of the best places in the world for resource investment according to the Fraser Institute鈥檚 recent global survey. In fact, Saskatchewan ranks second on the global scale for mining investment, right behind Western Australia and ahead of Ireland, Finland and Alaska.

That isn鈥檛 by accident.

Wall and his team have crafted a careful set of parameters for industry investors that actually encourage the injection of funds into the sector that once was simply known and recognized as the Wheat Province. In fact, we used to carry that logo around on our licence plates.

Saskatchewan is so much more than wheat now.

On the agricultural scales, this province offers up much more than red spring wheat. We are among world leaders in the growing of mustard, canola, lentils and the like.

We now have entrepreneurs in our midst who have learned how to do a little value-added work with our crops and equipment.

On the resource side, our government and its regulatory and promotional agencies have been fine-tuning their side of the equation for years so that Saskatchewan is now capable of moving forward not just in boom times, but also during tough economic times.

Take, for example, the recent information this province has actually added a few thousand full-time jobs during the past month, while neighbouring Alberta had to add 24,000 people to their unemployment list, boosting their unemployment rate to near eight per cent. Saskatchewan鈥檚 unemployment numbers dipped a bit to below seven per cent.

Not wonderful, but not catastrophic either.

In other words, Saskatchewan is coping even better than Alberta and B.C. during these tougher economic times.

Next, the premier flew off to Toronto, Montreal and St. John to talk to the movers and shakers in those provinces. At the time of this writing, we鈥檙e not certain what the message would be, but we could certainly hope he would be speaking up about the need for the Energy East pipeline.

The rest of North America has to learn that pipelines are not the enemy. They are not the cause of global warming, they are the conduit of commerce and market freedom.

If Canada is going to be considered a serious player on the global scene, surely our fellow Canadians on both coast lines have to come to the realization that getting our products out to the world, requires a robust teamwork transportation system.

They can鈥檛 grow a whole bunch of lentils and wheat or mine potash on the rugged coastline outside Vancouver, nor can we sail cargo ships down the Souris River. It requires co-operation to make things work efficiently. We feel confident that Premier Wall will be able to deliver that message forcefully without making enemies.

All leaders in all our provinces and territories need to keep their eyes on the bigger picture, and focused on realities.

Reducing carbon emissions is a work in progress, and it鈥檚 not an impossible task. It will happen through incremental, careful steps taken with effectiveness in mind. It doesn鈥檛 need to be a bull rush, knee-jerk reaction like what appears to be happening in Ontario.

There is a satisfactory medium to be found and we think Saskatchewan鈥檚 leadership has found it. We hope the others will at least listen.