From the Sask Chamber of Commerce - MacNeilSaskatchewan has always had world-class resources, but government intervention and lack of capital have stunted their development, says Tom MacNeill, president and CEO of 49 North Resource Fund.
"We're a 'have province' now. We've always been a 'have province'," MacNeill told delegates at the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce annual meeting and business conference here Thursday
"We just haven't done some things right to give us that ('have province')) status, but now is the time," said MacNeill, a Saskatoon-based, third-generation entrepreneur.
MacNeill said the province's history of government intervention in the economy through Crown corporations and the nationalization of the potash mines in 1970s has hindered the development of the province and given residents a collective inferiority complex.
"We're a 'have not' province because we haven't been using our own money to develop our resources ... Saskatchewan, and the Maritimes... are the only two jurisdictions in Canada that have never developed local capital formation tools.
"We tend to have a self-esteem deficit in this province... We don't know how good we are and what we can do. (But) the rest of the world does."
MacNeill said the global economic downturn has only highlighted the province's leadership position in the resource sector. "We are the number one jurisdiction in the world right now.''
For example, Saskatchewan succeeded Ontario as the top mineral producer in Canada in 2008, with $9.7 billion in uranium, potash and precious and industrial minerals.
The province is also the second-largest oil producer and third-largest natural gas producer in Canada. And MacNeill agreed with Energy and Resources Minister Bill Boyd that Saskatchewan will eventually overtake Alberta as the largest conventional oil producer in the country.
"We get the best of both worlds. We're a unique province in Canada. The top half is like Ontario and the bottom half is like Alberta. We've got everything, but we really haven't exploited it properly,'' MacNeill said.
MacNeill rattled off a list of mineral resources that Saskatchewan is a world or national leader in production, reserves and exploration potential.
"We supply a third of the world's potash... One quarter of the world's uranium. We have the world's largest diamond exploration project.''
Recent discoveries of 30-50-metre coal seams in east-central Saskatchewan, along with roughly five billion tonnes of lignite coal along the province's southern border confirm the existence of a world-class coal resource.
But the province has allowed outside capital to develop its resources, which has meant the export of billions of dollars of wealth to other jurisdictions, MacNeill said.
As Saskatchewan's "first publicly traded resource investment company,'' 49 North Resource fund is attempting to patriate some of the billions that are leaving the province, MacNeill said.
A group of entrepreneurs and investors founded 49 North in 2005 — the province's 100th anniversary — because they believed "it's about time we did something like this,'' MacNeill said.