So Saskatchewan, are we tired of being wood hewers?
I'd guess we are, but so far nobody has done much about it. We're content to ship our resources out for the benefit of others.
It's not like we're suffering. We're being compensated for our stuff. Some politicians would like to see us gain more tax and royalty dollars in the process, but we don't want to scare anybody away.
The way things are changing in Canada, is having an impact on our province. It seems that by current standards, if you're making $500,000 or less, you're not even upper crust any more. In fact, you're not even going to be rich, you're middle class. Under $60,000? We'll, you're part of the working poor. That's the way it goes in this new world order.
It's only those corporate presidents and CEOs who are guaranteed millions in salaries, who can be considered rich. The one per cent get a few million in salary, then a few more in the form of bonuses, even if they haven't performed well. Then there are the stock options, and if they're not that good at the job, they still have a golden parachute to float them into retirement or another job. These are people with the can't-lose contracts. These one per cent pay less than you do in taxes on a comparative scale. That's all well and good.
What bothers me is that so few of these super rich live in Saskatchewan, even though a lot of the money they're claiming comes from here. They collect here, but won't live here, won't park their limos on our lots and certainly won't park their head offices here either, unless they are legislated to do so by a miffed government. Even then, they'll go the token pretend route to set up in Sask., but really won't channel the big stuff. Their yachts, $200,000 cars, private jets, swank condos will be built and bought elsewhere with only a few exceptions.
Remember the good old days when Saskatchewan producers had the Wheat Pool to count on. It was born and bred for Prairie farmers. It turned into Viterra and Viterra's big boss slowly eased himself out of Regina, over to Calgary with half of the jobs and then eased out of the picture with one of those golden chutes. Shall we watch the remainder slip slide away? WIT? Need I say more?
Private, public partnerships (P3) are being advertised as a new way to do business in Saskatchewan. How many of those companies with the $100 million or more per project contracts will be headquartered in Saskatchewan? They might build their labour pool here. That might be the best we can expect.
Remember when we kinda owned our potash, coal and oil companies? Now we have field offices and token visits by the big pushers when the weather turns warm.
Do you recall SaskOil, which begat Wascana, Nexen and then Alberta?
How about IPSCO? That used to be Saskatchewan owned. It's now a Scandanavian company. It's operated here, but the big bucks go away. We settle for selling naming rights.
There's more, of course, but you get the point. We create jobs, but profits drift away.
Maybe that's why we stubbornly insist on retaining our Crown corporations. We don't want to have a complete provincial sell-off, or do we? Maybe we should have a look at what the future might be if we did.
