I spent last weekend in Saskatchewan, visiting family and friends while participating in the province’s annual writers’ gathering – Festival of Words – in Moose Jaw.
Between events at the festival, my niece’s husband Vern and I made our way through a prairie rain storm to Taylor Field in Regina. He had a pair of tickets to the Roughriders-Alouettes football game, but he’d packed the rain suits just in case. It’s a prairie trait, I think, hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst. During the 1970s, when I worked in Saskatchewan, I learned an appropriate descriptive of the then ‘have-not’ prairie province:
“This is next year country,” they would say. “The best is yet to come.”
Well, it appears that some of the best has finally arrived. It’s apparent everywhere you look in the province. Wheat prices are climbing. Oil production is at its highest level in the province’s history. And Saskatchewan’s prevalent, pink-coloured, chalk-like mineral, potash is boosting the province’s economy like never before. Four years ago, for example, potash (the basic ingredient for fertilizer) was worth $100 a tonne; today it’s $1,000 a tonne. In the first five months of 2008, Saskatchewan’s wholesale trade totalled $8.1 billion, the highest in Canada.
Enough numbers. During the five days I visited, I spotted numerous indicators of prosperity and equally important stability. These were small things perhaps, but harbingers of an upbeat economy and an optimistic population. Bumper crops of flax and canola seemed to be on every farm field. I don’t remember ever seeing casinos in Saskatchewan when I was there; now the three major cities in the province – Saskatoon, Regina and Moose Jaw – all have them. Shops seemed extremely busy wherever I went. Malls were full, although I noticed some of the fast-food outlets had to close early because they were short-staffed. A Regina-based publication is apparently soliciting people over age 55 to help fill the gap.
People I met can’t get hired handiwork done around their homes; all the tradespeople have gone to the higher-paying jobs at construction sites and in the oil patch. Speaking of construction, I think I saw more cranes on the Regina and Moose Jaw skylines than some recent photographs of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. At the southwest corner of Regina, for example, outside the city’s outer ring road, earth-movers were clearing land for a new subdivision for up to 30,000 new residents. On CBC radio the other day, Saskatchewan’s premier encouraged former residents to come home for the good times; the province’s population is above 1 million for the first time since 2001. That’s a far cry from the days when editorials poked fun by saying:
“Would the last person to leave Saskatchewan, please turn out the light?”
All of this recent growth has not come without a price. In smaller communities around Saskatchewan, where the country’s pride and joy Medicare was born, there are doctor and nurse shortages. In the northeastern town of Nipawin, I read, community clinics generally housing three to five resident physicians, are typically seeing two or three move to more lucrative urban practices.
And as was the case when I was there in the 1970s, the aboriginal population doesn’t appear to be sharing in the new-found wealth. While a huge insert in the Regina Leader-Post applauded companies, schools and government departments for fostering First Nations’ involvement in a booming and bustling Saskatchewan, it doesn’t appear to be working. My niece’s husband, who works in house construction and repair across the province, said he wished more aboriginal workers would get involved.
“It would mean a lot more work and a huge improvement for their families’ living standard,” he said.
Meanwhile, at the Montreal-Saskatchewan CFL game Vern and I attended last Saturday, the threatening rain had cleared by kick-off. It didn’t matter to the full-house at Taylor field – the Roughriders’ 10th straight sell-out crowd of 28,800. They were there to see the best in the west take on the best in the east – the Montreal Alouettes. Fans weren’t disappointed.
The game proved a barn-burner. The teams battled back and forth all game long. Then, with just 2:30 left on the clock in the fourth quarter and the home side down two points, two massive rainbows appeared south of the football field. Some called it a sign. Saskatchewan kicked off, hoping against hope for a miracle turnover. It came when the Riders intercepted a Montreal pass, deep in Alouettes’ territory and then scored the winning touchdown with seconds remaining. Saskatchewan’s time had come.
Saskatchewan’s time has come. It appears “next year” is now.
