Although not as dependent on Oil & Gas as Alberta, Saskatchewan earns a large chunk of its revenue from Agriculture, Minerals, Forestry, Life Sciences, Manufacturing, and Energy sectors. The worsening Potash price, as reported by the losses of Potash Corp, is one of the worst in a decade for the Fertilizer major, but the province has the second largest reserve of Potash – a key ingredient used in fertilizers. For 2016-17, the province is projecting a deficit of $259 million; that means no drastic spend cutting but layoffs in the major contributing sectors. Despite the current economic setback, Saskatchewan has a history of dominating the provinces when it comes to per capita GDP, just behind Alberta, at C$73,759. Like Canada, Saskatchewan goods and services found the largest market in the US, receiving 55% of the total $33 billion exports in 2015. China, India, Japan and Brazil were the other markets where the province found the largest markets with the Asia market growing from $2.2 billion in 2004 to $8.6 billion in 2015.
Agriculture
With 44% of Canada’s total cultivated farmland confined in the province, Saskatchewan leads other provinces as an exporter of durum wheat, lentils, dried peas, mustard, flaxseed, and canola. Agri-product exports hit a total sale of $15.1 billion in 2015. The dominant position is the result of the natural resources, but the government with the Agriculture Development Fund (ADF) wants to cement the province’s position as the leader in Agriculture. The government funds $14 million a year in projects through ADF, mostly using a public-private partnership model encourages researchers to focus on specific goals: develop new crops, increase livestock competitiveness, improve food quality, develop new processing technologies, innovative and transform existing farming systems to sustainable farmland. Entrepreneurs who can leverage biotechnology to improve value-added production, and alleviate risk in agricultural output will find the most opportunities in the industry.
Minerals
Saskatchewan holds world’s 30% potash and 18% uranium supply. Apart from the vast mineral sources, the province also produces coal, salt, gold, silica sands, sodium and potassium sulphate. The growth of the mining industry is gauged by the budget allocated for exploration. Over the past five years, the investments have been uneven with $293 million (2011), $325 million (2012), $236 million (2013), $216 million (2014) and $239 million (2015) allocated to exploration. The $7.2 billion mineral production in 2013 was the third largest in Canada, but the game changer for the province has been the discovery of the 200-hectare kimberlite fields in Fort à la Corne, one of the world’s largest fields. The gold exploration has also led to a blossoming yellow metal industry along the La Ronge Greenstone Belt and north of Lake Athabasca. The Claude Resources’ Seabee Mine, for instance, produced a cumulative target of 1 million ounces as early as 2012. Saskatchewan’s 10-year royalty free exploration and 5-year tax rebate has triggered the mining boom. The province, rich in Uranium, produces over 85% of the exports from Canada. The remainder is utilized in the CANDU reactors that generate the majority of the home and Business energy needs in Ontario.
The above Post is an Excerpt from the Book - Why Canada: A Complete Career Guide for MBA Applicants. Download the Book, here
Inside Why Canada: A Complete Career Guide for MBA Applicants
- Analysis of Job Opportunities in Energy, Forestry, Manufacturing and Life Sciences sectors
- Job Opportunities for MBAs in Saskatchewan
- Analysis of 10 Canadian provinces and the best fit for you,
post-MBA - Funding Options available for Local and International Students pursuing an MBA in Canada
Download: Why Canada: A Complete Career Guide for MBA
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