10 Places to Be in Saskatchewan | A roundup of the province’s economic and business startup hot spots
Looking for a startup hotspot in Saskatchewan? With everything from new cities to established economic engines,the province offers something for every entrepreneurial appetite
by Kristiana Indradat and Stephanie Sparks
STRADDLER: The Husky upgrader is just one source of prosperity for Canada’s only true border city
Though named in Bruce Power’s November 2008 Saskatchewan 2020 report as being in the right zone at the right time to host a nuclear power plant, Lloydminster isn’t about to do so any time soon, at least according to the provincial government. No worries. Its economy is still in top shape and, unlike the rest of Saskatchewan, exempt from that pesky provincial sales tax. Agriculture and oil and gas remain the city’s strongest industries. In fact, according to the Lloydminster Economic Development Authority, “25% of all cattle raised in Alberta and Saskatchewan are raised within a 160-kilometre radius of the city of Lloydminster.”
The Husky Lloydminster upgrader, which began operating in 1992, produces 66,000 barrels per day of synthetic crude blend, along with petroleum coke, sulphur, diluent and low-sulphur diesel; it’s currently the community’s top employer. Opened in 2006, Husky’s ethanol plant, which uses local non-food, feed-grade wheat, received $70 million in October 2009 from the Canadian government to “sustain production of biofuel until it becomes economically viable” – a step toward diversifying the local economy.
And – like Moose Jaw and Saskatoon – the Border City placed in Canada’s top five entrepreneurial cities for 2009, as ranked by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
Weyburn is not only a major urban centre in southeast Saskatchewan, but also a centre for agriculture and energy. It’s home to Weyburn Inland Terminal Ltd., Canada’s largest privately owned inland grain terminal, which combines grain cleaning, drying and rail shipping capabilities with storage of about 4.15 million bushels of grain. THE BAKKEN AND WEYBURN OILFIELDS ARE SOLIDIFYING THE CITY’S GROWING REPUTATION AS AN ENERGY CENTRE. Where production once stalled at 25% of the original oil available in the reservoir, the commercial life of the Weyburn oilfield has been extended by about 25 years thanks to enhanced recovery using high-pressured CO2 sequestered from the Great Plains Synfuels Plant in North Dakota.
Most of the new businesses in the area are fuelled by oil and gas sectors, but the general economic slowdown has led to a decrease in construction projects. The City of Weyburn saw a dip in the value of its building projects in 2009 – down almost $20 million from the previous boom year where residents saw a new building constructed about every four days. But it isn’t cause for alarm. Still growing, “The Opportunity City” had to negotiate expansion of its city boundaries last year.
REGIONAL GIANT: the core of this retail centre for southwestern Saskatchewan
With its prime location midway between Regina and Medicine Hat, at the junction of the Trans-Canada Highway and Highway 4, Swift Current boasts being the hub of southwest Saskatchewan. Canada’s Small Business Juggernaut, a 2009 report from BMO Capital Markets Economics, ranked the city eighth for small business intensity, with a concentration of 51 small businesses per 1,000 people, beating out 110 other communities and regions. Toronto, Edmonton and Calgary, by comparison, were reported as having concentrations of 30, 37 and 39, respectively. Also, about half of Canada’s spring wheat and about 92% of its durum wheat traces its origins to the area, according to the city’s Semiarid Prairie Agricultural Research Centre, a leader in researching prairie soil and developing new grains.
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