Top 3 Reasons Brad Wall Said ‘No’ to BHP Billiton Takeover Bid of PotashCorp

October 22, 2010, 10:37 am

Brad Wall, the Premier of Saskatchewan, gave his official response to the BHP Billiton hostile takeover of PotashCorp. His official response is ‘no’. Premier Wall can not stop the deal himself, but the deal still has to get federal approval which will look very carefully at the Premier’s position when coming to a decision.

  1. Jobs
    • Jobs at the other potash companies thinking of expansion in Saskatchewan could be put at risk if BHP decides to go into full production.
    • The future of Canpotex is at risk if BHP does decide not to use them for marketing.
    • BHP has said they are going ahead with a mine at Jansen Lake, which should be viewed as new investment and new jobs in the province.
  2. Royalty and Taxation Revenue for Saskatchewan
    • Full production from BHP could result in a 60% drop in prices and up to $570 million dollar loss annually due to oversupply.  This could add up to 3 to 6 billion dollars.
  3. Strategic Interests of Saskatchewan
    • There is no benefit to Saskatchewan to give control of 20% to 30% of the worlds potash to a company that is not specifically dedicated to the product.
    • Saskatchewan and Canada loose a Canadian company and loose leverage in the potash sector.
    • Potash will only become more valuable as the world continues to feed its population.

In the end, Brad Wall does not see the BHP Billiton takeover as a ‘net benefit’ and thus gives a resounding ‘no’ to endorsing the deal.

Brad Wall’s entire speech transcript can be found here.

Brad Wall is standing up for Saskatchewan’s future.  We can hope the federal government takes his advice and does not allow another foreign giant to gobble up a Canadian mining company.  Foreign companies have made many promises when buying Canadian companies, but they often break their promises when profit gets in the way.  It seems they can not be held to their promises in the long run.  That is where Saskatchewan and Canada suffer.

Saskatchewan needs to keep growing and prospering and part of that is keeping the leverage we currently have in our valuable potash resource.  Other countries are not keen on letting control of their natural resources slip away from them, and neither should we.

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Saskatchewan Cabinet Ministers Receive iPads

September 25, 2010, 10:28 pm

The iPad is a cool new gadget from the over-hyped and overvalued Apple company.

In what the government claims to be a paper and cost savings measure,  the Saskatchewan Party is giving their cabinet ministers iPads.  The government goes on to claim that one office will save over $50,000 worth of paper costs in a year.  Computer technology is not new;  the ministers could have been viewing their documents electronically for years.

Officials say that the new iPads, with all their neat applications, will only be used for government business.  Show us that the Facebook and Twitter apps have been removed from the devices and then maybe we will believe it.

In addition to the very small and distracting BlackBerrys, the ministers will carry around iPads to play with at meetings when others are speaking.  Let’s just hope all the ministers can get their iTunes off their iPods and transfer them to their iPads without much iTrouble.

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Electing Senators

May 20, 2008, 7:23 pm

The Saskatchewan government has drafted legislation to receive input from Saskatchewan voters about Senate appointees. The Prime Minister, through the Governor General, usually appoints Senators. Alberta was the first province to have an ‘elected’ Senator, when Prime Minister Steven Harper appointed Bert Brown.

In school we were taught that the Senate was basically a place of “sober second thought”. Is the Senate really necessary at all? The provincial government seems to work somewhat effectively without a senate.

I’m not sure how much the Senate costs Canadian taxpayers each year, but I’m sure it’s a hefty amount.

In a democratic country like ours, if a Senate is necessary, should we elect them rather than have Senators appointed according to whomever is the Prime Minister at the time? As you can well imagine, the appointments sometimes seem to be political in nature, rather than the best person for the job.

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