Saskatoon and Saskatchewan need growth in areas other than these volatile and over theorized markets. Permanent jobs that pay well, involve long careers and honest citizens.

Saskatchewan is landing itself a lot of rental space and temporary positions. It will be the term work hub of Canada. Chockablock with single mothers and overworked manual labour.

Another obvious indicator of the widening gap between poor and rich.

I am seeing some very sophisticated analysis of varying financial concepts here that have given

me a lot of perspective regarding my relocation plans.

Thanks for that.

I agree with Something Doesn’t Add Up’s comments. I’ve learned that it’s difficult to time or predict the “next big thing “good or bad. The events that cause wild swings in sectors of the economy are generally something no one saw coming. Generally i think most things stay pretty even.

I don’t think Alberta’s economy is going to crash and I do think Sask. will experience some nice growth leading to a very good steady economy in a few years where all the economic sectors support each other. But there will be bumps along the way just to keep life interesting.

If you are knowledgable about the stock market, then you understand the concept of future performance. Investors purchase based more on what they think is going to happen that what is currently happening. This leads to such anomalies as a companies stock price going down after they report record earnings, because the market figures the stock has now peaked and results will start to trend down.

In the same manner, I would say that much of the future performance of the province has already been priced into the housing market. The province HAS TO boom just for current prices to be reasonable. Otherwise prices will have to drop. For housing prices to increase, the boom has to be even stronger.

Also, as far as commodity prices, there is a reason most seasoned investors invest lightly in them. They are unpredictably and subject to large price swings. If you’re following uranium then you’ve seen prices shoot up 8-10 fold, correct? I’m not saying prices will go back to their ridiculous levels earlier in the decade but should demand start to dry, they could hit the wall and plummet. I read an article about an alternative metal to uranium they are developing in Ontario which is much more readily available. Sorry I don’t have the link. The point is, all it takes is new technology or a policy change in China and prices will get hit hard. Similar concepts apply to grain, oil and fertilizer prices. They are high right now but who knows where they are going.

If you take a look at the stock market you would know that grain prices/potash are through the roof. Also take a look at uranium prices they are starting to increase again bigtime. Saskatchewan being the largest producers of these commodities on the planet. Throw in $90 a barrel of oil and in my opinion the boom should continue. I’m heavy in the stock market and bullish on uranium in particular. Analysts are talking about $200/lb uranium in the future from the current $80. All I’m hearing right now in this blog is about Alberta. Take look at these Saskatchewan companies ticker companies symbols POT, CCO, AGU, CPG.UN.,BQI etc. I don’t know about you guys but people are making money and lots of it in Saskatchewan in general. Wait till bonus time. It takes months to a few years for the the trickle effect to happen it doesn’t happen overnight. The oilsands project didn’t start 2 o 3 years ago in Alberta when home prices more than doubled there. You guys haven’t seen nothing yet.

Those calls and emails had tapered off to just a few each week. I’d be surprised if I didn’t get 20 this week. Honestly, I spend as little time as possible with them. As I’ve implied before, my satisfaction for my work comes from the personal connections that I make with people. I am far more about families and homes than I am about investments and numbers. It just doesn’t do anything for me.

I should also mention that there have been some nervous callers who are already heavily invested here. It’s not all excited people looking for a place to spend money.

Jason,

I have not heard this story and see nothing in recent sales that would support it. I will let you know if I catch wind of anything solid on that. If one agent reports 50 sales, I doubt it will get by me.

Interesting about the investor inquiries. What is your definition of way up? Like instead of getting 3, you’re getting 6; or instead of getting 3, you’re getting 20. If it’s going to be investors pushing this market again in the spring, this may go on longer than I originally thought. I figured it would be more families and people for jobs this spring.

How many “investor calls” were you getting last year at this time? Also, what questions are the ones calling now asking and what feedback are you giving them?

I am all for growth and I could easily get pumped up about new business and more development in oil. I learned this year that I’m just not excited about working in a speculative market. I’ve had a good year. I’m not complaining about that. When everything around you feels like it’s out of control it’s hard to ever feel real comfortable. I’m not going to be thrilled if housing starts blasting ahead of the rest of the economy. I’m particularly nervous because “investor” inquiries are way up over the past week. If one more person feels he needs to tell me that Calgary is in Alberta I’ll flip!

Alberta is definately oil king in this country. If your “comparatively speaking” is in reference between Saskatchewan and Alberta I understand your point. Although being Canada’s 2nd leading producer at 19% of the country’s oil, I’d hardly say “there’s currently very little oil development in Sask”.

I do agree with you that this province needs to recover economically and that “Boom II” is further away than Ron thinks.

Ron,

Great point about the price of oil in U.S. dollars. A lot of people don’t realize that. Same thing with gold. It’s up 15% in the past 3 months, however the U.S. dollar has dropped 10% in the same time frame.

I think for “Boom II” to happen, the companies have to decide to come here. Then more infrastructure will need to be built. I see all that being at least 3 years away. However I’ve also stated in the past that I believe there’s still 10-15% left in “Boom I” through the spring as more B.C. and Albertan’s cash in on equity. There are a lot of nervous investors starting to pull their money out of those 2 provinces and looking to put it in other places. I believe Saskatoon to still be an attractive place for that money (Although a lot less attractive than 1 year ago). I mentioned Winnipeg a week or so ago. I like it’s constant 8 – 10% per year appreciation and it’s cheap. Wouldn’t suprise me to see some of that Western money end up there.

Norm,

Are you still getting an increased amount of calls from asian investors?

Also, has anyone considered what kind of impact an oil&gas slowdown in Alberta will have in Saskatchewan? I’m sure that no one will argue when I say, our boom 1 is the result of Alberta equity whether it be investment or immigration… and those dollars are contingent on a strong Alberta economy. An impact that will be felt before a positive impact of oil companies moving to sask.

I’m excited, so don’t call me a naysayer… but the issues we’ve been discussing in crime and poverty are a clear indication of an economy out of whack. If managed properly, we will see success for Sask, but this isn’t going to come over night!

J.

Well said! All excellent points. There is certainly no easy fix when it comes to attitudes that see violence as normal.

Ron,

Thanks for the input. Boom II? Hmmm. We really could use a little time to finish recovering from Part 1. This bit of news certainly has the potential to bring some big revenues to Saskatchewan and some decent paying jobs.

Ken,

Thanks for the thoughtful comment and for reminding us of the perks of living in a place like Saskatoon and the potential pitfalls of failing to keep some perspective on what is really most important in life. I know that I already feel “tired” after a year of hectic activity. Things have just been settling down here recently and while I see how this royalty review thing could be really good for our province, I am hoping it doesn’t turn our real estate market back on its ear. Good luck with your move goals.

For those new to Saskatoon, these sorts of problems aren’t anything new to Saskatoon. They were here long before the boom. The boom is in no way the cause of them, but could definitely contribute to the problem.

First don’t expect a boom to fix a lot of social problems. From what I see here in Calgary there is not enough financial spll off to do much more than give you a bigger house and newer car to view the same problems from. But you care less because you’re a little more insulated and a hell of a lot busier.

If some of the “boom” money went to putting incentives in place for people that fall through the cracks to become educated and productive it would be well spent. But I haven’t seen it happen here to any large extent.

Until maybe now.

Premier Stelmach has responded to an oil resource royalty panel’s suggestions that royalties be raised by (heaven forbid!!)…raising royalty rates.

Some people are thinking that Stelmach is making a big mistake; that Ralph Klein created a lot of wealth for the resource exploiters and in return Albertan’s got the benefits of a robust economy. I am looking at this event from another perspective. The economy that Albertans got was an over heated juggernaut.Yes there are lots of high paying jobs, and long work days, and less time for family and hobbies, and lineups for brunch and gridlock and… well you see where I’m going.

I think Stelmach knows the oil companies will pull back on some future investment. That money will go to Saskatchewan or elsewhere… but so what! Does all the resource have to come out of the ground by a certain date? Sure oil prices are high and now is a good time to exploit them but there will be high and low resource prices in their time for as long as there is a resource industry.

Perhaps what our premier is doing is trying to balance our economic success with a more pleasant social environment.

Spreading the resource investment dollars around is not a bad thing.

I have listed my house in Calgary and want to relocate to Saskatchewan after it has sold. After several trips to Saskatoon to view properties and visit relatives, I was impressed with the fact people could take time during their work day to come and see me. I could get across town in half an hour even with some traffic snarls. I could go for brunch or dinner and be seated right away. All of these things are special treats to a “boom fatigued veteran”.

Events in Alberta’s oil patch will impact Saskatchewan’s economy as these changes take effect if labour shortages can be addressed.

I hope that as resource royalty investment shifts and Saskatchewan’s economic fortunes improve even further that some lessons are learned from the neihbour to the west.

Don’t let economic prosperity mess up a good thing.

Thanks

I definately paid attention to that news. That’s a pretty steep royalty and I can’t understand what they’re thinking. Whenever government gets involved with business, things get screwed up.

I’m quite happy to hear it though being in Saskatchewan . Although I’ll probably take a hit on a couple of Alberta oil sand stocks and trusts.

I unfortunately don’t have any answers, I’m just good sometimes at pointing out the problems, lol. There are good arguments to be made on both sides of the discussion.

Shirley and Don:

Your lack of basic punctuation skills typifies what I have to deal with every day out here. I didn’t know the good lord made such ignorant people as there are out here in cowtown. Anyways, I appreciated your well thought out and factually backed opinion. FYI: saying “no one does nothing about it” is a double negative and makes you come across as a typical uneducated Albertan. But please, do share more often.

I swear Norm, there are some days that I can’t wait for the crash to happen out here, lol.

Four years?? Out in two. Regardless of who was involved in this killing, are we to believe that four years is sufficient to give us any confidence that other lives will not be lost? The message here is loud and clear. Your children’s lives just don’t mean that much to the justice system anymore. This is a sickening story.

You wrote, “That being said, I’m going to have to go and disagree with you Norm.”

Hey, this is allowed here. I almost always appreciate being challenged.

I’m not talking about throwing away the key on a kid that smashes a window, or steals a car but if you stick a knife in my head, and I’m lucky enough to survive, I don’t think it’s too much to ask that I don’t have to worry about you for a good ten years or so. In my humble opinion, I think you’ve proven yourself to be a danger to society and we should have a little time to work on you before we trust you on the street again. It’s as much about public protection as it is about punishment. I’m willing to error on the side of the 70 year old woman who didn’t have a chance against these pukes. Most of these victims will live with the scars of an attack for the rest of their lives.

Yes, poverty is a big issue but many of these gang related problems can be pinned on useless parents who can’t be bothered to teach their kids some basic respect for life. There are plenty of poor people in our community who have managed to raise children with some values.

Have you ever seen that warden from Texas who refuses to house prisoners in the prison? He makes them live in tents and works their butts off all day long. I can’t remember the stats they were quoting but very few of his inmates return for a second stay.

My point is this; if these kids know that there are no serious consequences they will continue to behave as if there are no consequences. We need to catch them when they’re young and show them that there are consequences for crimes against society.

Yes, I agree that kids come from bad situations. If you know a solution that doesn’t involve locking them up for 25 years (that is a proven solution), I’m all ears. Until then I agree with Norm

I’m not sure about the Justin thing. I’ve only seen stickers in people’s windows. The kid I was speaking of that died was my next door neighbours son. In that case the kid that did the stabbing was put in jail. Although he only got 4 years for murder.

As far as prostitution and VLT’s… The city blew it big time on the casino thing. (Pun intended). Don’t know what I think about legalizing prostitution but if it takes the pimps and street walkers off of the street then sure.

the blog is in agreement. :-0

The major issue with these gangs are that the older gang members recruit the 14-15 year olds to do the crimes. They’ll only go to juvenile hall where they get to hang out around all of their friends and probably live better than while at home.

Something,

I agree with your post. I looked up the stats before I posted my last post and Saskatchewan has been the worst in crime for years. In fact, Saskatoon’s crime rate has been decreasing the past number of years. You’re probably right in stating that the whole system needs an overhaul. I’d hate to see what is was like 5-10 years ago.

That being said, I’m going to have to go and disagree with you Norm. You wrote “When some of these punks start getting 10-20 years for attempted murder they’ll start to think twice about stabbing someone for nothing.” My personal experience, as well as most of the studies I have read on the subject show that increasing punishment of (most) offenders just doesn’t work.

Yes, it would likely discourage the preppy Lawson kids from jacking cars. But the real crime in Saskatoon is directly linked to poverty and bad social conditions. If you want to reduce crime, make people wealthier, it’s that simple. When people are cold and hungry, they become desperate and do desperate things. Needless to say, I don’t see this “boom” Saskatoon is having as being beneficial to the situation.

I’m not explaining all crime by any means, but a large part of it. I’ve (fortunately) never been the target of a violent attack but I had more crimes against my property than I could count. My truck was actually broken into while I lived on the wealthiest street in all of Saskatoon twice (which happens to be a short walk from some of the worst neighborhoods on the west side).

Back when I used to work nights, I was actually lucky enough to catch the punk who smashed a window. To be honest, he was very lucky that there were other people around, lol. The cops came and took statements and it ended up going to the John Howard society (mediation). I actually got to talk to the kid and his mom and locking him up would have accomplished nothing. His dad was gone, she was working a lot to support them, he started hanging around older kids, it was all very straight out of a psychology textbook. I’m not saying the kid shouldn’t be punished, but you need to proactively address the causes of crime, not just reactively punish the criminals.

And Northstar, I worked with people who knew Justin very closely. I would never excuse what happened to him, nobody deserves to be stabbed to death. I will say though that the officers I knew told me the situation was a lot more complex than the general public believed (some of the people involved and at the party were ‘known’ to the gang unit, and it wasn’t the kid who did the stabbing). I imagine you have better information that I have (mine is second hand knowledge at best), but that’s just what I had heard. The point I want to make though is that there were reasons in that kid’s life that he ended up murdering someone. Not necessarily justifiable reasons, but you can’t just throw him in jail for life and assume the problem is solved and justice served. There are a dozen more kids growing up just like he did and will turn out just like he did unless we do something about it.

And I agree completely with SomethingDoesntAddUp. So many people I know live out in the boonies of Saskatoon (Willow Grove, Briarwood, Stonebridge, etc) and think Saskatoon is a perfect city. I used to complain to them about all the crime and poverty in the city and they had no idea what I was talking about because they literally never left their suburb.

The sad thing is that there are so many things that could be done in Saskatoon, but the city doesn’t seem to have the pragmatic commonsense to do it. News flash to Saskatoon – you will never get rid of prostitution. It’s called ‘the world’s oldest profession’ for a reason. So you only have two options really; continue to demonize it and push it further and further underground where it continues to prey on the poor and underage. Or you could legalize it, regulate it, move it out of your core residential areas, and see the difference it makes.

Or take gambling for instance. I voted for the casino in the civic election a few years back. But the religous right got together and defeated the movement, because gambling is ‘bad’. Yet Saskatchewan has more VLT’s per capita than any other province in Canada (a little hypocritical, don’t you think?). Why not take the VLT’s out of the neighborhood pubs and bars and put gambling in a more centralized location and reap the tourism benefits? Or vote the motion down, and have the casino be built anyways twenty minutes outside of town where you will receive zero of the economic benefits.

Just some of my ideas, I welcome any feedback.

Alex, I do recall you saying that and I didn’t doubt it for a moment.

Poverty is certainly an issue and we can’t expect people that cannot honestly meet their basic needs not to steal in order to do so. That’s just a fact. I’m not sure why a guy needs to be stabbed in the neck or have his head caved in with a bat. All that said, poor people have been living honest lives since the beginning of time.

The bigger problem is society’s indifference. As Alex says (more or less), “don’t bother me with your problems. I still have all of my teeth.”

Parents don’t seem to give a rats ass what their kids are up to. They’re too damned lazy to care. Kids know that they’ll never be held accountable. Cops are frustrated that their efforts go nowhere.

This society will eventually go to hell in a hand basket if we don’t get busy making a big stink right across the country. Let’s start locking these useless idiots up, for a long, long, long time. Don’t give me “prisons overcrowded!” Stack them up 5 high, and two feet apart if we have to. Feed them rice and beans. Put them to work. Make prison an ugly place to be.

When some of these punks start getting 10-20 years for attempted murder they’ll start to think twice about stabbing someone for nothing.

There’s no doubt that residents of the inner city areas are more likely to fall victim to this type of criminal activity, but let’s not fool ourselves and pretend it doesn’t happen everywhere. Last week, an elderly woman (70 years old) was attacked by a group of youths on 3rd Street East in broad daylight. Of course, they were after the poor woman’s purse but that didn’t stop them from hauling her to the ground by her hair. Shameful!! Makes me want to scream! They’ll never catch the little fucks and if they do they’ll get probation, which of course, they’ll violate repeatedly. Which brings me to another point. These kids are often released to the custody of their parents, usually with a curfew, which pretty much goes ignored. The parents should be responsible to report the kid awol 5 minutes after curfew or face “aiding and abetting” charges.

The community is much larger than this problem. We just need to decide to be pissed off and to let it show. Maybe we can start a movement. Maybe we can get couple of hundred people to picket and make some noise. One thing is for sure, something needs to be done.