Lots of mention of downtown, head offices, highrises in this piece. I get the impression that Mr. Klein reads Skyscraperpage.
Potash about more than head office
By Gerry Klein, The StarPhoenix August 26, 2010
At a family reunion this summer my wife, an ardent Roughrider fan, cornered my cousin over his ring.
Larry Dumelie was on the 1966 Grey Cup team and his relatively unassuming championship ring has since then been a permanent part of his wardrobe. And while this game looms large in Saskatchewan lore, it is a particularly seminal event in our family.
While Viviane ogled his ring, Larry explained that he wears this ring not because it's a gaudy symbol of an athletic achievement or a national championship, but because it is a constant reminder that the 1966 Grey Cup was a turning point for Saskatchewan.
It represents a moment when the province, still deeply scarred by the impact of the Depression, demonstrated to the country that, through grit and determination, it could stand with the best of them. It gave me a new perspective, not only on this game, but also on how Saskatchewan sees itself. This province was always more than a sum of its parts, and those parts were impressive. The big sky, the fearsome Prairie storms, having nearly half the arable land in the second largest country on Earth, its uranium, its gold, its diamonds, its trees and lakes -- all of this seemed so enormous it was shocking to learn others had not heard of it.
Perhaps that's why the province is now all atwitter about having BHP Billiton, the biggest mining company in the world, checking it out its assets by way of a proposed $39-billion takeover of Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc.
I fear, however, we have lost sight of what this is all about. As my colleague Murray Mandryk pointed out in this space Wednesday, having these two giants courting Saskatchewan puts the province in a favourable bargaining position. But it's not head office jobs, high-rise building, sports sponsorships or university walkways Saskatchewan should be asking for. These companies have come calling because they want the potash.
Potash isn't all Saskatchewan has -- it has oil, agriculture, uranium, gold, diamonds, timber, endless lakes, clean skies and even commercial fish.
But the potash is special. Only about a dozen countries in the world have this resource in sufficient amounts to make it worthwhile, and the deep, broad rich bed that was laid down more than millions of years by the Cretaceous Sea is uniquely accessible and exploitable.
And unlike the oil and other resources that are critical for economic development, the world needs this potash if it is to feed a population that will continue to grow until at least mid-century. There is very little new land that can be converted to growing food, and what is there is under stress from industrial and residential encroachment, climate change-driven droughts and floods, and years of over exploitation without proper renewal.
The time will soon come when investors will again come in great numbers to look at the top six inches of Saskatchewan's territory, but for now they are focused on what is underneath because, without some cataclysmic disaster or game-changing breakthrough in biotechnology that allows food to be produced in unprecedented quantities under now-inadequate conditions, the demand for potash to help renew the soil stretches to the horizon and beyond. Saskatchewan, as they say, is the Saudi Arabia of potash.
Given that, Saskatchewan and Saskatoon shouldn't be negotiating tax breaks for head office jobs or currying favours for university walkways. Whether it's an Australian, Chicago-based, or Saskatchewan company that is extracting the resource, it is in that organization's interest to help assure the province is a welcome host to its customers and employees, and provides a well-educated and innovative workforce, including tapping into fast-growing Native population.
But we shouldn't expect any company that's worth staying will sacrifice its economic advantage to make the University of Saskatchewan or Saskatoon's downtown look better.
For example, BHP Billiton just occupied a brand new building that sits among the historic landscape of Third Avenue like a giant rhinestone nose ring on the face of a classic beauty.
Although it's more attractive than the relatively new and already deserted Credit Union building on the corner, it's worth remembering that a century ago on the site of the BHP building, the beautiful Ross Block rose as a testament to the optimism that then swelled Saskatoon heads.
It's not the baubles of a head office that should catch the eyes, so much as the size of the bids. If PotashCorp sells for $40 billion, $60 billion or even $100 billion, as some analysts have suggested, we can bet at least that much worth and more of potash will be pulled from the ground.
The government should be guaranteeing investors a stable royalty regime that will provide a fair return for those who own that potash -- the current and future generations Saskatchewan.
It's not government's job to make corporate decisions about head office locations or job requirements. It's the government's job to make sure Saskatchewan is a stable and dependable place to establish a business and to set reasonable tax rates that will assure fair, long-term returns on non-renewable resources.
It may not create the jewel in Saskatoon's downtown some hope for, but better to have something that will remind future generations of the day Saskatchewan recognized its worth than a bauble that soon becomes incongruous with its surroundings or fails to reflect the dignity of its host.
© Copyright (c) The StarPhoenix
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http://www.thestarphoenix.com/columnists...+office/3444528/story.html#ixzz0xjKoGb1n
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