Saskatchewan’s Next Economic Horizon
Looking back at Saskatchewan’s economic history, a pattern quickly comes into view. We are a textbook example of what Canadian economic historian Harold Innis called the Staples Thesis: a region built around the extraction and export of raw commodities.
Innis wrote that commodity-rich regions can be trapped into path dependency. Capital and labour naturally flow toward primary extraction because it offers high returns and lower risk. Saskatchewan’s commodity export economy has left us vulnerable to external price shocks and makes it extremely difficult to diversify Saskatchewan into secondary manufacturing (processing) and tertiary industries (services, technology, and knowledge capital). Saskatchewan is living in the “Resource Curse.”
Recent geopolitical events and technological advances may open a door for tremendous economic opportunity for Saskatchewan. The stars are aligning for Saskatchewan in a way they haven’t for generations.
Global capital is shifting. European banks are seeking secure critical mineral pipelines and middle eastern sovereign wealth funds looking for stable, long-term infrastructure partnerships. The world is looking directly at Saskatchewan, and we need to position ourselves to capitalize on this window of opportunity.
The question for business leaders, policymakers, and academics must be: What more can we do to turn this moment into multi-generational economic resilience?
It has been said that Saskatchewan has been held back because it has too few people and too much geography. Navigating our unique geographic realities requires innovative structures. We cannot rely solely on public spending, nor can we leave structural diversification entirely to unguided market forces.
I believe that structured Public-Private Partnerships offer the most pragmatic bridge for now, leaving the door open for more market driven capital in the future. By pairing private sector efficiency and global capital with public oversight and strategic infrastructure investments, we ought to build the value-added processing and high-tech service sectors needed to process our resources right here at home.
As we design these partnerships, we have a responsibility to learn from two foundational traditions of the First Nations of Saskatchewan:
“Everyone gets a piece of the buffalo”: Capital investment cannot simply be about extracting value for outside shareholders. Economic growth must be evaluated through a clear lens: How does this investment directly benefit the people of Saskatchewan? Prosperity must be shared, inclusive, and community-sustaining.
The Seven Generations Framework: Strategic decisions must not be driven exclusively by quarterly earnings reports or four-year political cycles. We are stewards of this land and its resources, and therefore our economic architecture must account for the well-being of children and grand-children seven generations from today.
To be clear, I do not claim to have all (or any) of the answers.
What I do have are sparks of ideas that may inspire your hypotheses on how advances in technology, global capital shifts, and collaborative policy can help Saskatchewan overcome our geographical constraints and escape the cycle of boom-and-bust commodity dependence.
This Substack is intended to be a digital town hall for thinkers, builders, and leaders across the province. Together with you, I hope to test ideas, explore strategies, policy frameworks, and ask questions about where Saskatchewan goes next.
I hope you’ll join the conversation, challenge my assumptions, and help generate discussions that will shape our province’s future.