Land rush

[cowman]

Well you might be right...Sask might get more in the long run for oil...who knows? Maybe the old saying" If they pass you they must be an idiot from Alberta" comes from the fact on most Alberta roads the pot holes aren't three feet deep!Dumb Albertans not knowing they are going back fifty years in time when they cross the border! LOL
I believe your gambling figures are wrong? I think it is a bit under $1 million? But whatever...you got to have a dollar if you want to play the slots! I suspect Saskatchewan citizens aren't exactly "shrinking violets" when it comes to gambling? Now maybe I am wrong and they are all little comrades who decry the evil empire? I wonder who spends all that money at your Indian casinos?...Probably evil Albertans?

[ado089]

To answer the initial question...land in the Calgary area is trading for as high as $30,000/ac and it's imposible to farm because there is an acreage on every corner so every time you pull out a sprayer or seed too close to the yard you get some jackass calling you and/or the cops. Your $300-500/ac land around Regina is very attractive to someone who either wants to keep farming or expand for their children. Some will come and go others will stay. Farming in Alberta seems to be allot more profitable, some can transfer that success to sk, but most can't make it work. My suggestion is anytime you talk to someone from Alberta exagerate you land prices to make it less attractive. That is unless you want to sell your land.

[perfecho]

Accutually I am from AB, along the #2 corridor...where I can be thankful that land prices have gone up tremendously...otherwise my farming venture would be a total flop....but then I have to sell. I'll probably wait until the cycle bottoms and then have to sell. Anyways, I am sure your are right about Sask in the gambling end, I doubt any province has left that cash cow alone. As for the oil revenues and gambling revenues, I believe for the last number of years, they have been running almost neck and neck, sometimes one ahead of the other and then visa versa. I have not read anything on the last year or so..would like to find out.

[cowdog]

Whether you agree with what I write or not you must admit I do know how to get a thread moving.
On matters of agricult and farmer's the Sask.'s current government is always the strongest voice followed by Manitoba. Could they do more? Of course they could.
The Alberta government has done a great deal to promote Ag. business at the expense of farmers, such as the funding of the anti-CWB campaign.
Uas the Sask. government taken away your property rights and given them to the energy industry for the lowest royalty regime in the western world, the environment be damned?
How many Sask. mothers to be, are being sent out of the county to give birth? All because of the erossion to public health care.
Do Sask. residents pay Healthcare Fees? Huge school fees for your children? License plates and pivate legislated insurance on every farm truck you use, even though it might only travel a few hundred miles a year?
There should be a sign at every Alberta border crossing saying "WELCOME TO DEAWOOD"(HBO), { no offence intended to the town of Deadwood AB), because that is what this energy boom means for many of us here in Alberta.

[cowdog]

I am a really bad typist please forgive me when you try to decipher to previous entry.

[Horse]

Cowman you realy need to get a new format the old one of kiss the oilmans behind and blame everything on the NDP is getting old.

[coppertop]

cowdog, you do make some valid points but I certainly question your comments about licence plates etc. If you think about it for a minute, why in heck should the government in Alberta pay for plates for vehicles when a huge number of them are owned by the very businesses that you contend are getting a free ride in Alberta ????? I don't mind paying for plates for my vehicles as long as I have decent roads to drive on ! As for health care premiums, there is no free ride and anyone in this province ( AB) who is low income or a senior does not have to pay premiums unless they elect to have enhanced coverage. Alberta has some challenges but I think by and large it is a pretty decent province to live in.

I too, am concerned with expectant mothers having to be flown out of our province to have their babies but if you happen to be in the Stollery Children's hospital or the Cross or Tom Baker cancer clinics you will see many patients from other provinces who have come to Alberta for treatment or because of the expertise of specialized doctors.

People are what makes a province a good place to live, and there are many that have done a great deal to make every province in our country a good place for those who choose to call them home.

[cowdog]

coppertop, I think I failed to fully expain the Sask. program for agricultural vehicles so, I will try again In Sask. there is public vehicle insurance and I believe that insurance is attached to the license plate renewal. For farm vehicles only the following regime applies: if you have say a cattle truck, 2 grain trucks, a truck for haulling round bales, 2 older spare pick-ups, a service truck and a water tender and none of these vehicles drives more than 5000 miles per year per vehicle you can buy a single license plate and no fault insurance that you can legal move from vehicle to vehicle. That would save me thousands of dollars a year.
You are right about people making the province, but there is still a difference. Sask. feels more like Canada than Alberta; the sense of cooperation and working together has not yet been entirely erroded away and replaced by the American ideals of rugged individualism, greed and self interest to the same extent as has happened here.
All that anti NDP Stuff is really just the same disconnect that all rural people feel towards government but , in Sask. rural people are not afriad to express it. There is one thing about the Sask. NDP government we should all remember; it was the first provincial gornment to balance its budget in Canada and they did it with a hell of a lot less money than Alberta to work with.

[cowdog]

coppertop, I think I failed to fully expain the Sask. program for agricultural vehicles so, I will try again In Sask. there is public vehicle insurance and I believe that insurance is attached to the license plate renewal. For farm vehicles only the following regime applies: if you have say a cattle truck, 2 grain trucks, a truck for haulling round bales, 2 older spare pick-ups, a service truck and a water tender and none of these vehicles drives more than 5000 miles per year per vehicle you can buy a single license plate and no fault insurance that you can legal move from vehicle to vehicle. That would save me thousands of dollars a year.
You are right about people making the province, but there is still a difference. Sask. feels more like Canada than Alberta; the sense of cooperation and working together has not yet been entirely erroded away and replaced by the American ideals of rugged individualism, greed and self interest to the same extent as has happened here.
All that anti NDP Stuff is really just the same disconnect that all rural people feel towards government but , in Sask. rural people are not afriad to express it. There is one thing about the Sask. NDP government we should all remember; it was the first provincial gornment to balance its budget in Canada and they did it with a hell of a lot less money than Alberta to work with.

[coppertop]

cowdog, perhaps you should take a trip across Alberta and see first hand how co-operation has built and kept numerious communities thriving through difficult times and good times.

I live in a resource based area, and there are many self made millionaires in this community because they have not been afraid to take a risk. In getting to where they are and having the quality of life they enjoy, they have provided jobs, given back to their communities and all in all been good corporate citizens, and made our area a better place to live. Possibly because I have been involved in public life and travelled over the past few years to every single municipality in Alberta, I am not as jaded as you are when it comes to what sort of province we have.I see co-operation, community spriit and community pride in every corner of this province. Certainly, some folks have replaced that spirit with the quest for the almighty dollar but I am sure that will or is happening in other provinces as well.

I understand your issue with the ability to change plates on vehicles that aren't used a lot in a farming operation, BUT has that sort of scenario been suggested to the government in Alberta ? I would suspect that if such a program were implemented in Alberta, the industry would want the same option. Many industry vehicles aren't used all the time, only on specialized operations etc., so should they qualify for the same treatment as farmers ?