SASK URANIUM - THE POWER OF CHANGE

Saskatchewan is at a crossroads in decision making, a crossroads that could see us become a world leader in energy development, a leader in environmental stewardship and a leader in helping stabilize a world frought with terroism and the threat of nuclear arms used by rogue nations and groups. These are tall orders for a province like Saskatchewan and a country like Canada. Let me explain how the people of the province can do all of this and more if we have the courage, foresight and leadership to plan well.

Saskatchewan has some of the largest uranium deposits in the world. We have proven through careful planning using the best of technology and incorporating the skills of our industrious people, that we can produce and manufacture the basics of the nuclear fuel cycle on a cost competitive and environmental sound basis with anyone on the planet. Cameco Corp. which was created in the early 90’s from the old provincial Crown Corporation SMDC and the Federal Eldorado Nuclear by the former PC Government has proven to be a world leader in uranium development in northern Saskatchewan as well as a mineral developer around the world. Cameco has become such a successful venture that its share value has quadrupled in the last 15 years and the provincial NDP government has sold over a billion dollars in Cameco shares it was left by the former PC government.

Now is the time for Saskatchewan, Cameco and the rest of the industry to begin phase II of our place in a world desperately in need of new, safe, environmentally sound and secure sources of energy. Saskatchewan uranium should be mined here, refined here, packaged for use in the various types of nuclear power plants around the world, re-packaged when the fuel is used up, shipped home-processed for things like medical isotopes, sealed in the appropriate Saskatchewan made glass, ceramic or other type of environmentally sound container and re-introduced into the billions of year old rock of the pre-cambrian shield of northern Saskatchewan.

A tall order you say? Yes it is and here is why we should do it, why we must do it and why we should not let the doomsday keepers from the cold war era or weak-kneed politicians get in our way.

First of all, we all know that Saskatchewan must grow its economy and create long-term, well-paid employment to keep our sons and daughters living here, raising families here and being the taxpayers of the futures in a growing province. Uranium could be a large part of that puzzle. The technology required in this endeavour means our universities and technological institutes will need to produce a constant stream of highly trained and motivated professionals and tradespeople to handle the challenges of this endeavour. The returns to government through taxation and royalties where you can punch the cash register through the entire uranium cycle ensures that there is a continuing return to the people of Saskatchewan for health, education and the services we all wish to enjoy.

Secondly, this uranium cycle management would put Saskatchewan squarely at the forefront of combating climate change and nuclear proliferation. We have all heard the predictions of the dire consequences to our world if we don’t do something about greenhouse gases and the pollution of our atmosphere caused by the over use of fossil fuels on this ever more populated planet. The specter of persistent famine, drought, drowned coastlines and the disappearance of dozens of animal species like our wonderful and magnificant polar bears means we have an obligation to our children, to our country and to our world to do things differently. Nuclear power is one way we can dramatically begin to alter that balance back to a manageable level because of the zero emmissions to the atmostphere of greenhouse gases. New technologies in nulcear power plants around the world such as the “Pebble Bed Reactor” will ensure the growth of the industry in a safe environment.

Thirdly, by signing contracts with governments and companies around the world that would see Saskatchewan mined, refined and packaged uranium used to generate electrical power and then returned to a jurisdiction committed to nuclear non-proliferation, we can ensure that none of the by-products of nuclear power could be used by the nutcases of the world to commit nuclear blackmail or worse yet, use the technology to settle ideoligical or religious scores with the rest of us.

Saskatchewan people can harvest riches beyond our wildest dreams with this resource for hundreds of years to come. We only need to use the common sense, innovation and strong work ethics which built this province to succeed. We must except our responsibility to the rest of Canada and the world when we profit from our resources by being part of the solution in a larger world drive for sustainable energy supplies and security.

When the Progressive Conservative Government of the 1980’s and early 90’s created Cameco, it was also creating a dream for the future.

We can obtain that future by working together - not by succumbing to the fears of the last century, not listening to weak-kneed politicians who are more interested in keeping their jobs or conversely, opposition parties who won’t talk about it because they want the other guy’s job and by believing in ourselves as some of the most innovative people in our country.

I believe today as strongly as I did 15 years ago when, as your Minister of Energy and Mines, it was my responsibility to take Cameco to the market place for the initial share offering – that our future as a province could be so much more. Let’s do this for all the right reasons.

Rick Swenson
Former Minister of Energy & Mines
Current Leader of the P.C. Party of Saskatchewan

SELL GOVERNMENT SHARES IN CO-OP UPGRADER & SASKFERCO

TO BUILD BIO-FUELS INDUSTRY

The world is being taken by storm – a storm of renewable energy in the form of bio-fuel. Ethanol and bio-diesel are making cleaner air to breath, a less polluted atmosphere, creating new businesses and employment and giving the agriculture sector hope for a brighter future. Our provincial government can lead the charge in Canada by being ready to do things that are courageous and innovative.

Saskatchewan has the space, water, 40% of the arable land in Canada, a highly-educated workforce, positioned in the middle of North America with tens of millions of customers nearby. It is time, Mr. Calvert, to sell some assets – to build even bigger ones. If done properly, the development of a bio-fuel industry in Saskatchewan can provide long-term, sustainable growth for all our citizens for decades to come.

I would first like to commend our provincial government for two initiatives which have positioned Saskatchewan to forge ahead. Saskatchewan was the first province to set a mandated standard for the use of ethanol in all gasoline used in the province. It has implemented the entire package on business tax reform as recommended by the Vicq Commission. Saskatchewan can compete with anyone once new ethanol and bio-diesel standards are adopted by the government in Ottawa. Hopefully, these standards will mirror the ones being adopted in the United States (10% blend) so that eventually pre-blended fuel can be shipped into that market as well as supplying a good chunk of the Canadian marketplace.

Now comes the part about being innovative and having courage. Saskatchewan has two assets which were developed by the previous Progressive Conservative government to fulfill other long-term goals. One was the Heavy Oil Upgrader which was partnered with Federated Co-operatives at their refinery in Regina and the other was the development of a world-class nitrogen fertilizer plant at Belle Plain now called SaskFerco. The Upgrader, along with a second one at Lloydminster (Husky Oil), were built to spur the development and use of our immense heavy oil reserves which were being sold at a large discount because no one in Canada could refine them. Those upgraders were built when oil was at $15.00 a barrel and at the time were criticized as being some of the worst investments ever made with taxpayers’ money. Likewise, SaskFerco was developed to take advantage of our newly developing natural gas fields found in the late 1980s and early 90’s providing much-needed fertilizer for our agricultural base, complementing our already strong potash resource and exporting a finished product all over the world. Because this is a reality today, the Government collects royalties on the oil and gas at quadruple the values of 15 years ago, taxes on the businesses and the high paying employment created by them means taxpayers have been paid back their initial investment. In fact, these two world-class ventures are now worth 2-3 times their initial investment ($550 million).

Neither the Co-op Upgrader or SaskFerco were ever intended to stay in the hands of government beyond their pay-back period. Now is the time for government to divest their shares in these two enterprises and put the money to work helping create the bio-fuel industry which down the road can be even more powerful in fulfilling Saskatchewan’s potential. Bio-fuels can touch the lives of more of our people in a positive way than any other industry can. Cargill has the right of first refusal on the purchase of the government’s 49% of the shares in SaskFerco and could easily purchase the shares with the monies they made off the backs of western Canadian cattle producers during the BSE crisis. Likewise, Federated Co-ops have never been in a stronger financial position and the thousands of co-op members across western Canada like myself believe the organization can function without the government of Saskatchewan looking over their shoulder or sharing their profits. In fact, Federated should be one of the companies which would make an ideal fit for producer-controlled ethanol and bio-diesel plants to partner with to distribute and blend their production for sale to the retail sector across North America.

The Government of Saskatchewan should be a facilitator, a bridge financer, a partner for needed infrastructure and our biggest champion in dealing with other federal and provincial jurisdictions as businesses and agriculture band together to make this great opportunity happen.

We can do this without going into debt, without the problems of the high interest rates, without having to ship new products thousands of miles at heavy cost by being imaginative, by copying what has worked before and by giving up a little to gain a lot.

I ask Lorne Calvert and his NDP government to forget that these were the initiatives of a Progressive Conservative government once criticized by his party, but as assets which can unlock a whole new future for Saskatchewan people and let the politics go by the wayside for the sake of a cleaner environment, a prosperous agriculture sector and a thriving business climate for generations to come.

Rick Swenson
Former Minister of Energy & Mines (89-91)
& Former P.C. MLA for Thunder Creek