Saskatoon Construction III

[roryn1]

https://www.ckom.com/2021/08/17/bhp-grou...-for-jansen-potash-mine-in-saskatchewan/

$7.5B must include a new office tower…

[asdfgh]

Originally Posted by YXE

What the hell every happened to the city implementing BRT? I feel as though they have been going through the deliberation etc. phase for a decade now. What is there left to plan for? Is the delay COVID related? Bleh. Not much to talk about in here these days.

I'm pretty sure they've always, or at least for the last 5 or 6 years, said that it will be operational in 2025. It's a pretty huge re-work of the transit system, so it sounds like there is lots of planning involved and they don't want to phase it in, as that'll just result in people being unimpressed with a half-functioning system.

Good news is that from the looks of it, they did a ton of work for the BRT as part of the 8th street resurfacing last year. Lots of wider sidewalks AND stuff installed on the lights, which I assume is to monitor the buses and allow them to control the lights a bit to ensure they are on time.

[asdfgh]

Originally Posted by roryn1

https://www.ckom.com/2021/08/17/bhp-grou...-for-jansen-potash-mine-in-saskatchewan/

$7.5B must include a new office tower…

Yup, that was my first thought.

Does this mean North Prairie will actually build something downtown (i.e. next to the current BHP building)? Or maybe the River Quarry on 4th will finally get a tenant.

[FarmerHaight]

Originally Posted by djforsberg

This reminds me of a large difference between traffic signals in Saskatoon and Regina. Here in Regina, most of our traffic signals have motion sensors that detect when vehicles are queuing in lanes, which then triggers a signal change. But in Saskatoon, most of the street lights seem to be on timers, including at busy intersections. When I lived there, it only added to my absolute rage whenever I drove on a Saskatoon road. Does anyone know why Saskatoon has yet to update their traffic signals to something more reactionary to traffic flows?

Don't come to the lower mainland. It seems every single traffic light has an inductive loop sensor. Much more reliable than sensors on lights because I have had trouble tripping the sensor to cross / turn left onto highway 16 at the new Costco. Does Saskatchewan not use imbedded sensors because of snowfall?

[roryn1]

Downtown Saskatoon just did a full traffic review, and city staff didn’t even consider looking at light timings lol. I’ll never understand our city administration - we did a poll that showed no one in Saskatoon wants lower speed limits, they still propose lower speed limits against the will of the people. Same goes with traffic lights.. they just don’t care/don’t think there’s a problem for some reason. They don’t even seem to listen to council - any downtown meeting I’ve been in the city management acts like they’re better than the councillors… not sure how to fix that. Elect a new city manager? Cleaning house in a union setting is hard though… the ones resistant to change that are considered “senior” have been doing their roles for 30+yrs but don’t have any actual education around their specialization. A small town isssue I guess.

[zeebra]

Highly doubt the 7.5B has any provision for a new office building. Not to mention the SNC office that is in the same building as BHP is basically empty

[YXE]

Gotta love how on the day where the largest private investment in the province’s history was announced, we were on here discussing traffic lights.

I don’t know anything about what is required to operate a mine of any magnitude, and how much of an impact this will have on our local economy. It does, however, seem hard to believe that this won’t lead to more full-time jobs located in Saskatoon.

[Sask.ks]

Originally Posted by zeebra

Highly doubt the 7.5B has any provision for a new office building. Not to mention the SNC office that is in the same building as BHP is basically empty

Are you sure SNC and BHP have offices in the same building? Last I checked SNC has their own building on 1st Ave across from Midtown.

[jrochest]

I've not been in the city for quite a bit of the past year -- so the building at 880 Broadway is still a construction site? They have a website up with floor plans and prices, with an 'occupation date' of August 2021.

Or is there a second project in the neighbourhood?

[roryn1]

Originally Posted by YXE

Gotta love how on the day where the largest private investment in the province’s history was announced, we were on here discussing traffic lights.

I don’t know anything about what is required to operate a mine of any magnitude, and how much of an impact this will have on our local economy. It does, however, seem hard to believe that this won’t lead to more full-time jobs located in Saskatoon.

Work from home may have changed some things a tiny bit, but I’m fairly sure a office tower will be announced - they’ll definitely lease, so most likely exploring their options now that there’s quite a few options downtown. I saw quite a few lights on yesterday - I may have even seen Scott Moe walking by… as the shitty provincial cabinet office next door is also nearby. Hopefully this incentivized them to upgrade that office. Their initial investment into the community was massive back in 2010.

3,500 construction jobs a year until 2026, then ~500 corporate and mining jobs that pay six figures by 2027. probably ~10 million/year in new community donations (for new events and arena sponsorships??)

It’s huge! We’ll probably see a new Rosewood get built because of it.

[saskatoonborn]

Originally Posted by zeebra

Highly doubt the 7.5B has any provision for a new office building. Not to mention the SNC office that is in the same building as BHP is basically empty

I have to agree. Honestly even if an office building is built, office demand would have to go up substantially before anything on the size or scale of RL would get built. As much as many here (including myself) would love to see it happen, I dont think there will be a proposal to add to our skyline for another decade.

With our luck they will move to Stonebridge.

[roryn1]

We do have the best potash talent on the market and margins are the game in the mining biz - specifically engineers - they’ll want to snipe a few from Mosaic/Nutrien. Another spinoff no one’s thinking is probably how many engineering careers will be demanded via both SIAST and U of S. Big expansion for the colleges incoming . They’re building a new engineering campus correct?

Maybe BHP wants to sponsor a wing?

[King Ralph]

BHP announcement is defintely good news. You're a bit optimistic about the spinoff though.

Yes, there will be some new corporate jobs associated with it. But don't expect it to result in a giant office here. Its head office is in Australia. Also, many additional Canadian white collar positions will end up in its Toroto office.

[Stormer]

Originally Posted by King Ralph

BHP announcement is defintely good news. You're a bit optimistic about the spinoff though.

Yes, there will be some new corporate jobs associated with it. But don't expect it to result in a giant office here. Its head office is in Australia. Also, many additional Canadian white collar positions will end up in its Toroto office.

I am not sure about that. Toronto is the nickel and copper exploration office. Saskatoon is listed as the potash head office. Washington D.C. is the Minerals Americas head office and the location of the executive who has overall responsibility for both.

[roryn1]

The amount of royalties that come to the government with that much more potash pulled from the ground. We can finally balance the budget! Saskatoon is going to per capita look like a premium calgary soon! Potash jobs pay as good/better/more stable than Alberta’s Oil and Gas jobs. Even at the corporate level, Potash pays better throughout the company as a whole.

[roryn1]

Originally Posted by djforsberg

I did your optimism but remember that the greater the supply, the lower the price and I'm pretty sure our potash royalties are based on margins and not volume.

oops forgot the world’s demand for minerals stopped rising must be why they’re building lol

[Dalreg]

This mine is a long term investment. Having sunk in a few billion already, BHP has finally decided after what ten years to go into production and sick a few billion more into it.

No biggy for a global company supposedly sitting on $100's of billions in cash assets right now. Hopefully a few jobs in Saskatoon is the outcome, at best a few hundred.

[roryn1]

A good example of what a mine expansion (not even a new mine, just an extra leg to the mine) can do is in Yorkton, which thrives off of Mosaic’s Esterhazy mine. Most of the highest paid folks there carpool the 45 min there and back for the high salaries. It basically built a whole new section of the city when the K2 expansion happened, not adding more people to the city in particular, but upgrading a good chunk of the city’s people as they transitioned to new higher paying jobs. People attribute the whole “Circlebrooke” subdivision to the K2 expansion back in the 90’s. Yorkton is a different market though and has struggled with other employees leaving the region, so BHP’s mine will likely add a Rosewood equivalent to the city by the end of the next decade.

Nutrien/Mosaic also have large expansions occurring at existing mines. Belarus is currently having geopolitical issues that have resulted in global sanctions - Sask is set up to take a lot larger market share of global potash demand.

1. Direct jobs resulting from the mine workers and corporate employees
2. Spin-off employment from the high wage direct employees and contractors manufacturing the equipment for this new mine
3. Increased jobs with more active expansion from competitors with a new competitor entering the market
4. Increased sponsorships from all Potash organizations as a result of this new competitor - possibly a new sponsor to new major events/attractions our existing market couldn’t previously afford (BHP Arena?)
5. Greater need for rail in the province with a new competitor - CN/CP will put greater focus on SK. Maybe some CN/CP Rail corporate jobs return? We might be nearing that type of opportunity for SK.
6. Road upgrades - highway 16 is currently being twinned all the way to Jansen thanks to this mine, making the drive to Saskatoon from that region a lot more pleasant - massive increase in local tourism to Saskatoon.
7. FLIGHTS - the reason why we used to have chicago and denver flights via United Airlines was attributed a lot to Potashcorp’s Loveland and Chicago offices. BHP will bring a large flux of flights over the next ten years - starting soon with geologist/engineers/corporate coming to Jansen.
8.Hotel demand - a lot of these temporary folks/engineers will need short term stays.

The list goes on and on. Saskatoon is going to be a boom town once again

[SaskE30]

Tower crane is going up at the Main and Dufferin site today!

[roryn1]

Originally Posted by SaskE30

Tower crane is going up at the Main and Dufferin site today!

We are a crane city again! Broadway is going to slowly shift our downtown at this rate