Paul Martin is pretty well-known as a business spokesman, which made him an interesting keynote speaker at the recent Canola Day that was part of the Grain Millers Harvest Showdown in Yorkton.
Agriculture: Saskatchewan's economic catalyst is back was the general thrust of his presentation, although that message did seem to get buried by a look back at the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce's effort to take a long look at where our province was going as the new millennium arrived in 2000.
The chamber effort, Action Saskatchewan, really became an effort to "up our attitude" as a popular slogan of the day.
There is no denying Saskatchewan suffered from a long history of seeming inferior, in large part the result of being next door to oil-rich Alberta, a sales-tax-free zone, which skimmed off our best and brightest young people like a farmer skimming cream from milk.
And the chamber effort did get us feeling better about ourselves, or more precisely, made us ready to accept the success that was about to flow over our province regardless of local attitudes.
We may not have had the highest expectations for most of the 100 years marked by a provincial centenary in 2005, but it had nothing to do with attitude that oil companies suddenly gazed east and moved drilling rigs to the province.
The demand to seek out new reserve opportunities meant Saskatchewan exploration made sense given the coverage rigs had already given Alberta.
Mix demand with tax and regulation tweaks, some started by the last New Democrat government, and others pushed forward with the Saskatchewan Party taking power, and it made it the province's time to take a lead in oil and gas exploration.
Transition to the potash sector. It was a mature segment of mining with most Saskatchewan mines dating back decades and still remaining productive.
But world trends in population meant an expected growth curve in potash demand for fertilizer to feed more people.
While there have been hiccups along the way, as the Saskatchewan Party can attest as a couple of recent budgets have been bashed by lower expected potash revenues than anticipated, the long-term prognosis for potash remains good.
So again there was a need for exploration of new veins, and an expansion of existing facilities to meet that long-term growth.
With a fair chunk of Saskatchewan sitting over potash reserves, it was obvious most of the investment in exploration and expansion would occur here, to the tune of billions of dollars since 2000.
And now it is agriculture's turn.
When canola hits $14 a bushel off the combine, and other grains and oilseeds are all at or near historic highs, it's hard not to envision agriculture returning to a place of greater prominence in terms of the Saskatchewan economy. Even this year where a wet spring and untimely heat cut into yields for many producers, the overall bottom line is going to be better than average for most.
Certainly when agriculture is rolling, it is great for the economy since farmers buy new tractors, trucks, more fertilizer and other associated products in local towns and cities. Farm dollars roll through an economy passing through many hands in a hurry.
Jean-Philippe Gervais, chief agricultural economist with Farm Credit Canada who also spoke at the Canola Day, did note a few clouds on the horizon, which might impact farming including the dismal shape of the United States' economy and the need for the U.S. to offer up a workable plan to right their ship.
The situation in many Western European countries is even worse.
Such hamstrung economies could put the skids on worldwide economic activity.
But long term, the middle class of China, South Korea, India and other countries in the Pacific Rim hold out hope that we can be optimistic in Saskatchewan about our future, because as Martin suggested, they need the three "Fs" - food, fertilizer and fuel. Those are resources we do have in abundance in this province and that will be our strength, making for a diversified economy less reliant on agriculture than we were a decade or two ago, and stronger because farming is now one aspect of a triad of economic drivers.
