Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is the middle of the three prairie provinces of Canada between Alberta and Manitoba. With one million people, it has 227,134 square miles of land and water surface (588,276 square kilometers). Saskatchewan started to grow when the Canadian Pacific Railway was built in the early 1880s; it was part of the Northwest Territories until 1905, when it became a province having equal status with the other provinces (which are similar to U.S. states).
Contents
Geography
The name Saskatchewan is derived from the Cree word kisiskâciwanisîpikikimasiy meaning swift-flowing river.
Saskatchewan's geography includes prairies, tree-covered plains, forests, and taiga. The climate is continental, characterized by large seasonal temperature ranges and low precipitation. It is one of two completely landlocked Canadian Provinces. European contact with Indian peoples occurred during the fur trade era, and increased when agricultural settlement began in the late 19th century. In the early 20th century, that settlement history produced a largely agrarian population concentrated on farms and in communities across the prairie.
Economy
Although it lacks the vast oil wealth of nearby Alberta, Saskatchewan has enjoyed prosperity in recent decades. In 2006, provincial Gross Domestic Product was over $36 billion. Labour unions are moderately active in the cities and mining districts.[1]
Agriculture
Saskatchewan is a major agricultural producer. Although fewer than 65,000 farms remain, they are large and highly mechanized, and produce two-thirds of the nation's wheat. With soaring prices on the world market, wheat has been a major money maker. Production fluctuates widely according to the weather and rainfall.
Wheat has always been the primary farm export, but many farmers are increasing production of canola, used for cooking oil. Manufacturing, mining, petroleum also make up over 20% of the economy.
Mining
Saskatchewan is the world's largest exporter of potash, a vital ingredient in fertilizer, via the state-owned PotashCorp.[2] Mineral resources include world-class deposits of potash and uranium as evidenced by cities with names like Uranium City.
Petroleum
Saskatchewan has a growing oil and gas industry, though on a smaller scale than Alberta, and has pipelines carrying Alberta oil east. The main deposits are part of the vast "Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin", stretching from British Columbia to Manitoba, as well as parts of Montana and North Dakota. [3]
The first commercial oil was discovered in 1944. The province produces 17% of total Canadian oil production. Crude oil production in 2006 was a record 24.84 million cubic metres (156.3 million barrels). Remaining recoverable reserves at December 31, 2005 were estimated to be 187 million cubic metres (1.18 billion barrels).[4] Production is centered in four regions: Lloydminster, Kindersley-Kerrobert, Swift Current, and Weyburn-Estevan.[5]
Undeveloped oil sands are located near Churchill Lake. Unlike Alberta's booming Athabasca Oil Sands, Saskatechewan's deposits are located deeper and cannot be surface-mined.[6]
Communications
Government owned SaskTel, a Crown corporation with $3.1 billion in infrastructure in place, had $1,067.4 million in revenues in 2007, with profit of $84 million. The fastest growth came in wireless, with revenues of $301.3 million in 2007 from 452,000 cellphones. Over 85% of the population have high speed internet service available, with 206,000 users. Robert Watson was president and CEO.[7]
Politics
In the 1930s and 1940s the left was strong here. In 1944 Tommy Douglas became the first overtly socialist premier of any regional (state or provincial) government in North America. The nationwide New Democratic Party (NDP), originally named the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), began here and Douglas was its first federal leader.
Population
The population has hovered around one million in recent decades. The 2006 population of Saskatchewan was 985,000 people. It's largest city is Saskatoon at 202,000, followed by Regina, the provincial capital with 180,000 people. The cities then get much smaller with only two having more than 30,000 people; Prince Albert has 34,000 people while Moose Jaw has a population of 32,000.
The Indian ("Native" or "First Nation") population is about 10%.
Culture
The Yorkton Short Film and Video Festival is North America's longest continuously running film festival. [8]
Religion
RELIGIOUS AFFILIATIONS, 1941[9]
- Denomination Number Percentage
- United Church 230,495 25.7%
- Roman Catholic 243,734 27.2%
- Anglican 117,674 13.1%
- Lutheran 104,717 11.7%
- Presbyterian 54,856 6.1%
- Mennonite 32,511 3.6%
- Greek Orthodox 37,699 4.2%
- Baptist 19,460 2.2%
- Others 54,946 6.1%
- _______ _____
- Totals 895,992 100%
Sports
see Canadian sports
The Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League became the 2007 Grey Cup champions.
Notes
- ↑ Bob Russell, More with Less: Work Reorganization in the Canadian Mining Industry (1999)
- ↑ See [http://www.potashcorp.com/about_potashcorp/at_a_glance/potash/ "At a Glance" (2006)
- ↑ See [http://www.eboardoftrade.com/files/Miscellaneous/Oil_Sands_in_Sask.pdf "Oil Sands in Saskatchewan" (2006)
- ↑ See [http://www.ir.gov.sk.ca/adx/aspx/adxGetMedia.aspx?DocID=5871,5775,2936,Documents&MediaID=18882&Filename=crude.pdf "Fact Sheet: Oil in Saskatchewan" (2006)
- ↑ See [http://www.gov.sk.ca/Default.aspx?DN=4a57f37e-88de-4da5-b6a8-411793a739d5 "Oil and Gas Industry"
- ↑ See [http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/ntn53965.htm "Oil in Saskatchewan"
- ↑ See "SaskTel Reports 2007 Net Income of $84.1 Million," April 23, 2008 and Ronald S. Love, Sasktel: The Biography of a Crown Corporation and the Development of Telecommunications in Saskatchewan (2003)
- ↑ Cheryl Binning, "Yorkton looks back, pushes forward," Playback Magazine May 22, 2007 online
- ↑ Dominion Bureau of Statistics, "Eighth Census of Canada", 1941, Bulletin A-5, pp. 2-3.
