Alan Cruikshank says people in Saskatchewan used to be reluctant to invest in the province`s resource sector, but that isn`t the case now with the word `boom` being used.
As he works on final details of his fourth annual SaskRocks resource conference coming up May 5, Cruikshank says Saskatchewan attitudes toward investing have changed a lot in the past few years. People are following the profit growth of established companies such as PotashCorp and Cameco and looking at what other resource companies are coming along in their wake.
An extra seven per cent will be put to revenue sharing, says the municipal affairs minister.
The Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association, the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, the Saskatchewan Association of Northern Communities and Minister of Municipal Affairs Bill Hutchinson supported a plan for a seven per cent increase in revenue sharing at a meeting on Monday.
"It fits with what the (provincial) government was planning to do in the second year," said Mayor Jim Scarrow. "We would be receiving an additional $210,000 to $215,000."
It will be done fairly quickly, said the minister.
Regina residents may only be facing an estimated 2.9-per-cent property tax increase after the Saskatchewan Party government finalized its plans for additional municipal funding Thursday.
Municipal Affairs Minister Bill Hutchinson announced in the legislature that municipal revenue-sharing will be boosted by an additional eight per cent from the provincial budget, slightly exceeding the seven-per-cent hike that had been expected.
Lots of Edmontonians are thinking Regina: officials
While Regina businesses hit the road to sell the city`s charms to Edmonton residents, organizers say several Edmontonians were already willing to buy into the Queen City.
"It went very well," Larry Hiles, Regina Regional Economic Development Authority (RREDA) president and CEO, said of the Think Regina event held in Edmonton on Wednesday.
SASKATOON -- The rapid run up in potash prices is not through yet, predicts Bill Doyle, CEO of Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, Inc.
Doyle told analysts that customers mid-year could be paying $1,000 a tonne for potash, even though customers such as China and India have already seen prices jump $400 a tonne while customers in southeast Asia and Brazil will pay $200 more a tonne June 1. That will push prices to those markets sold through the Canpotex marketing agency to the $725 to $750 range. Earlier this week, the Belarussian Potash Co. announced spot markets in Asia would pay $1,000 a tonne by July 1.
Belle Plaine would be the right location for a $4-billion polygeneration plant, according to a report submitted to the province by TransCanada Energy Ltd.
The "project description`` report was submitted by TransCanada Energy this week as part of an environmental assessment analysis of the project.
The "very, very disturbing" actions this week of an Alberta-based landlord may prompt Saskatoon city council to reverse a decision to allow an east-side apartment building to be converted into condominiums, Mayor Don Atchison said Thursday.
Atchison was reacting to news that tenants of the 36-unit building at 2326 Arlington Ave. have been ordered to vacate their apartments by May 31, even though council`s April 7 approval of the conversion was conditional on the landlord allowing them to stay in their homes for up to two years.
As Saskatoon continues to see strong growth, both in population and with a surging local economy, consider the following scattered "boom thoughts":
- The big jump in Saskatoon house prices -- at least the initial kick propelling average prices up by $100,000 or better -- is less connected to the boom hype than a one-time correction. The marketplace simply determined that a quality city with a great lifestyle had moved past average house prices in the $180,000 range, particularly compared to other cities with less going for them. With a collective deep breath, less rhetoric and the right attitude we will move ahead. And the sun will come up tomorrow.
Saskatoon`s inner city will get a full-service grocery store, but not a multimillion-dollar complex for health-care services.
"It`s sort of a pragmatic thing. We don`t have the $11.5 million. If we want to do something, we`ve got to be realistic," Paul Wilkinson, Station 20 West project manager, said in an interview Thursday.
"It`s quite a different building than what we had hoped for."
House hunting in The Battlefords turns competitive
THE BATTLEFORDS -- Newfound prosperity in The Battlefords comes with a price -- a labour crunch and house prices that have risen by up to 100 per cent in the last two years.
With a population increase to nearly 20,000 and a decline in available rental accommodation, it`s tougher to find a home in the area, said Ed Truelove, associate broker with Re/Max in The Battlefords.
Some Saskatoon businesspeople are looking east to learn how to keep growth sustainable out west.
On Thursday, Irish economist Ronan Lyons spoke to a luncheon crowd about how his country moved from "The Poorest of the Rich," according to The Economist magazine in 1988, to "The Celtic Tiger," as written on the publication`s May 1997 cover.
Saskatchewan`s ever-fattening bank account may yet burst as extra cash appears likely to fall into the government`s hands thanks to stratospheric resource prices.
But the real big money -- with both its benefits and challenges for the province and its residents -- may be just around the corner if oil prices continue to climb as some analysts are predicting.
Advanced Education, Employment and Labour Minister Rob Norris acknowledges the story is just anecdotal, but it`s the kind of Saskatchewan population growth story he loves to repeat.
Three young men from Eastern Canada have just decided to move to this province for no other reason than they heard Saskatchewan was booming, Norris said in an interview. Upon hearing that the province`s population is increasing, the three thought they would have no problem finding work.
High gas prices a potential boost to Regina Transit
With gas expected to reach $1.40 per litre in the coming months, Regina Transit may see a swell in ridership but a similar boost in customers isn`t expected for the provincial bus company.
David Onodera, director of transit with the City of Regina, said the anticipated rise in gas prices may make the city bus service more attractive to local residents. While it may be hard to get most people to leave their cars at home, Onodera explained some families may start using the transit system more rather than running a second car.
The grand opening of a new plant in Swift Current that will employ about 100 workers in manufacturing "modular`` structures was held Friday.
The 100,000-square-foot Modus Inc. production facility will be particularly involved in construction of modular buildings that can be used as accommodation for workers in mining, oil, gas and other industries operating in remote operations.
As rice prices hit all-time highs this week, many countries are becoming vulnerable to food riots. The United Nations, China, Mexico, Italy and Germany are taking stronger stands against using food or oilseeds to make fuel. Presidential candidate John McCain opposes any and all price subsidies for U.S. agriculture to enhance ethanol production. Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are both ethanol supporters. One thing that is certain, global demand for food and biofuel is rising faster than global agriculture can grow.
Even if they get their way and the city decides not to build a new sewage lift station near their homes, residents around Rotary Park might still have to live with an offensive stench once in a while.
That`s one of the messages civic officials will deliver to homeowners during a public information session at Nutana Collegiate Tuesday night, hoping to win support for a new plan to build the station into the embankment below the Senator Sid Buckwold Bridge on the south side of the river.
An "ambitious" new target set by the provincial government to increase the number of immigrant nominations this year is good news for Dmitry Shevchenko.
The 28-year-old welder from the Dniepvopetvovsk region of Ukraine wants to nominate his friends through the provincial program to come live and work in Saskatchewan. A speedier application process, as announced by the government Friday, among other related initiatives, makes sense to Shevchenko, who can see the province is in need of skilled workers.
THE BATTLEFORDS -- One by one, Chris Odishaw watched more than half of his graduating class leave home for Alberta, a memory that pushes along his plans for creating a regional economy that people won`t have to leave to find opportunity.
He remembers his friends and siblings taking to Highway 16 for greener pastures, but Odishaw, mayor of the Town of Battleford, pop. 3,600, now looks to the future to shape his plans for the community. By the time his infant daughter turns 18, he wants to be able to offer her the choice to stay in her hometown to attend post-secondary and find a meaningful job.
Old buildings demolished. Two longstanding buildings in downtown Nipawin fell to the wrecking ball last week to make room for the new premises of Fiddler Agencies. What many would remember as the old Empress Café and Starkey`s Drug Store located on adjacent lots next to the premises of Century 21 and Mahoney`s Travel (the former Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce building) were demolished by Lorry Riemer of White Fox operating his trac-hoe 210. Jack Boxall Trucking removed debris and hauled in earth for backfill.
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