A great place to do business
THE LEADER-POST JUNE 28, 2011
When Premier Brad Wall coaxed an apparently reluctant federal government to blocking Australian mining giant BHP Billiton's $38.6-billion hostile takeover bid for PotashCorp seven months ago, some feared it would deter outsiders from investing in Saskatchewan.
A couple of recent developments show that the province remains a very appealing place to do business - just ask the aforementioned BHP .
Far from pulling out of the province that said "no" to its bid to gobble up PotashCorp and its 25 per cent of global potash production capacity, BHP has confirmed it is pushing ahead with its Jansen potash mine near Lanigan and Humboldt. The $488 million for site preparation and equipment that BHP announced last week brings to $1.2 billion the company's total investment so far in the project. If all goes well, potash production could start in 2015, with the total cost of mine construction pegged at $12 billion.
The ongoing development affirms Wall's confidence that opposing the foreign takeover of a "strategic" Canadian resource like potash was a unique issue that would not impact future business investment. BHP has also kept its word that, win or lose on the PotashCorp takeover, it would proceed with the Lanigan project.
The province got more good news on its business prospects Monday when it was ranked "best in Canada" for oil and gas investment in the 2011 Global Petroleum Survey from the Fraser Institute. That survey also ranked Saskatchewan 11th best in the world out of 136 jurisdictions assessed.
Key to the province improving its rankings from last year's survey is offering investors "confidence in a stable, competitive royalty and regulatory structure."
Alberta, once the darling of the oil and gas sector, tinkered disastrously with its royalty rates a couple of years ago and is now ranked sixth in Canada and 51st worldwide as a place for the industry to invest.
More good investment news could soon be coming. At the recent ceremony for the Canadian Pacific Railway's new $50 million intermodal facility, part of the Global Transportation Hub (GTH) just west of Regina, Wall said the GTH was "a gamechanger" that would attract new businesses and jobs to the province. When the CPR facility is fully operational it will transfer up to 250,000 containers between trains and trucks a year - a huge expansion from the 45,000 it handles annually at the old freight yards it is vacating in downtown Regina.
Phase one of a million-square-foot distribution centre for Loblaws is operational and other companies are expected to soon announce investment in a facility providing rail and road links to the U.S., Mexico and - via Canadian ports - the world.
The BHP Billiton affair was a unique, one-off situation. Saskatchewan is very much "open for business".
more:http://www.leaderpost.com/business/great+place+business/5014685/story.html#ixzz1QbBbYYMQ
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