Chris, who sent along this photo of Saskatoon’s QE power plant on a -40 day writes;

I guess we’re terrible people for not harnessing the power of a 7km/h wind and 8 hours of sun….

Related – Saskatchewan residents resort to burning solar panels to keep warm…

Star Phoenix;

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan will require the equivalent of 32,526 direct and indirect positions during construction of capacity expansion projects over the next four years, says a company executive.
When expansion projects are complete at its Allan, Cory, Lanigan, Patience Lake and Rocanville operations in 2012, the company will be responsible for the creation of an additional 14,583 direct and indirect jobs in Saskatchewan, Wayne Brownlee, PotashCorp executive vice-president and CFO, said at a Canadian Club of Saskatoon luncheon Wednesday.
[…]
The company is spending nearly $6.5 billion to add 8.95 million tonnes of annual capacity to its potash mines — including its Picadilly, N.B., operation — over the next four years. It expects the new level of capacity to be fully ramped up by 2014. In Saskatchewan, this means an investment of $4.8 billion, said Brownlee, and in a difficult economic environment, the timing couldn’t be better for the province.

*

And more:

Premier Brad Wall today announced:
– the largest single-year income tax reduction in Saskatchewan history;
– the largest amount of debt reduction in Saskatchewan history; and
– the largest investment in infrastructure in Saskatchewan history, while still maintaining a $1.9 billion cash balance in the Growth and Financial Security Fund.
“Our government is delivering a plan to lower taxes so that everyone will share in the benefits of Saskatchewan’s prosperity,” Wall said. “Today’s announcement benefits every income tax filer in Saskatchewan – even those who pay no income tax currently.”

It’s good to be in Saskatchewan!
Cheers,
lance

Privately, sources within the NDP say Calvert never quite recovered from the Raise A Flag scandal of ’05.

Thoroughly enjoyed myself at the BC-Riders game on Saturday night. It was a bit chilly with the wind, but not that bad.

BC defence dominated us. Good on them. The Riders, injuries or not, have to play better. Coaching has to be better. Play-calling has to be better. I don’t understand the decision to kick with a minute and change left. Our defence was outstanding, but come on, play to win!

To the fan who threw a beer can at the Lions, you’re a loser. You are a complete and utter drunken fool and you should be charged, named, ridiculed and banned.

Cheers,
lance

NewsTalk 650 is reporting that Rider great, Head Coach and broadcaster Ron Lancaster has passed his last yard.
Good-bye Ron. God bless.
You were one of the football gods.
My prayers to your family.
TSN has the ugly news.

Today is the day the Calgary Stampeders get to make the choice about their season. They can start to compete in the West or they can decide that their only real goal is to win Labour Day.

Which Burris will step up? Back-foot or 400 yards? Will any of the bobsled team step up and lead? The biggest question:

Calgary’s discipline has improved in 2008 but it’s still not at a satisfactory level. The Stamps have been flagged 61 times for 481 yards, which projects to 183 penalties (sixth in CFL) for 1,443 yards (seventh).
Stampeders Game Notes (PDF)

Now, the question on the Side of Angels is “who’s at receiver and when are the try-outs?” With a bye week coming up, the Riders have to just make it through the game. We’ll need our players for the home and home against Winnipeg. The win last week guaranteed that the Riders are going to make the play-offs in the West, it’s just a question of in what place.

6 The Saskatchewan Roughriders have started their season 6-0 for the first time since 1934. The team has never started a season 7-0 since their inception in 1910.
Riders Game Notes (PDF)

What the Riders must do: Pressure! Pressure! Pressure! I love it when TSN zooms in on Back-foot’s wild-looking deer eyes. Get him moving and your defence will get two picks.

What the Stampeders have to do: Stop Cates. Period, end of story. If they don’t they will lose.

Riders by a TD. You can not under-estimate the home-town fans, especially when the home team are the Riders and Mosaic Stadium is sold out.

Cheers,
lance

A goverment monopoly staffed with federal bureaucrats isn’t the best way to market a commodity? How can that be?

A new study by one of the world’s top agronomics firms, Informa Economics, though, suggests the CWB isn’t so mighty after all. Commissioned by the Alberta government and released the same day as Mr. Hill’s announcement, it concluded the board succeeds no better than your average schmo when it comes to grain marketing. More damning, it calculates that growers would have gotten richer over the past several years from the open market, rather than being forced to sell to the board.

Flashback – CWB “premium pricing” from the fall of ’07…

Related – The CWB opposes the proposed removal spending restrictions on third-party advertising during Canadian Wheat Board director elections. Oddly enough!

Rolf Penner;

“Umm, I hate to spoil the whole, “the yanks all sold early but look at what a good job we did of being disciplined and patting ourselves on the back” shtick that the board is spinning in their latest release here. But a buddy of mine just happened to put this chart together today with all of the Wheat Boards own numbers, their asking prices and the current PRO. For all intents and purposes farmers are getting pretty much what the boards asking price was at harvest. And the Board has the gall to claim the Americans sold too early. Unbelievable.”

bzzzzt … “Scott is calling in from Radisson… Scott, could you tell us what you’re seeing there at the moment” … bzzzztt …. “Yeah, it’s raining really hard here, bolt lightning and crackle my deck furniture is all over the yard and there’s branches down everywhere”… bzzztt… “Thanks Scott and stay safe” … cracklebzzzt… “No problem, and have a good one, eh. Go Riders!” …

The lightening crashed and the rain pelted the side of the house, and one roll of thunder seemed to go on forever. My ears perked up… the sound was getting louder – and closer. There was no mistaking what it sounded like;

The tornado descends as a violently rotating funnel cloud and sounds like the rumble of a freight train…

That’s when the horn blew for the level crossing.

5 – 0

Good things happen when you dump the NDP!

After driving through southeastern Saskatchewan this afternoon, I decided it was a good time to place this post in some context…
For our readers who are unfamiliar with Saskatchewan, we are the trapezoidal province in the center of Canada. To provide a sense of scale, I’ve placed England (red) in the north central portion of the province.

The Bakken Play is represented in blue.

In all your garble about “alternative” energy technology coming to Saskatchewan on the gentle green wings of Liberal faeries, it appears you’ve fallen victim to an embarrassing oversight.
So if you would, Mr. Dion – copy this down and post it to your caucus Energy Star fridge door;

1. Saskatchewan floats upon lakes of oil.
2. The beaches of those lakes are comprised of endless glistening dunes of coal.
3. Wafting over the scene are massive cumulous clouds of natural gas.
4. We have a population density of well under 2 persons per square km.
You see, Saskatchewan doesn’t need no stinking giant fans. We don’t need no stinking giant mirrors. We don’t need no stinking puny hybrids. (We don’t need no stinking nuclear power, for that matter, though we’re positively glowing with that, too.)
In short, Saskatchewan is not in danger of “running out” of conventional energy. Not many Liberals seem to know this. I believe they may have us mistaken for Ontario.
We have enough conventional energy in Saskatchewan to power every electrical grid, fill every SUV, and idle in every drive through in the province until long after the remainder of the world has ground to a halt. (In fact, we should probably make drive-through’s mandatory just to burn off the stuff that bubbles up from the ground on its own.)
So you won’t be taking our money to build over-priced, underperforming “alternative energy” crap we don’t need. You can use your money to build over-priced, underperforming crap we don’t need.
I hope this has helped clarify matters.
Thank you.
One more thing – if we’re the ones doing all the polluting…

…then how come Toronto has all of the smog?

Just a quick service announcement for the handful of motorcyclists who didn’t already know how bad the road is;

The Saskatchewan government is warning motorcyclists heading down to a big annual rally in South Dakota to avoid a potentially hazardous stretch of highway.
Each year, the Sturgis, S.D. motorcycle rally — the largest of its kind in the world — attracts thousands of visitors from Saskatchewan and other parts of Canada. Sturgis is about 863 kilometres south of Regina.
Many of the Canadian visitors have traditionally taken Highway 35, which runs due south from Weyburn.
However, this year the province is telling riders to take a different route.
The problem is a two-kilometre section of highway near the Saskatchewan-North Dakota border, which is being rebuilt.

That route has been treacherous for years, and it’s good to see work finally being done on it.
Actually, I’ve always thought Highways should install “motorcycle caution” signs at major intersections leading to highways with degraded pavement, gravel stretches, or significant construction as a matter of policy.

Questions at Agriville;

Where did all the money the CWB stole on our Basis contracts go?
There needs to be a forensic audit… and find out what is happening… has happened since October 1 / 07.
It Sure looks like have averaged over $2.50/bu OVER the MGE futures… since then (Oct 07)… that is over $90/t. The basis has been as high as $300/t above the futures… and never once has gone negative.
This means that the folks who used PPO contracts… have cross subsidised the pools… 4mmt times $90/t… over $300 million. In the end… the pool will be over $30/t higher than it should be… if proper spreads were used on the basis.
New Crop:
The Great Grain Robbery Continues!
What gives… PNW/Gulf port new crop basis levels are still over $60/t OVER the MGE futures… so why is the CWB attempting to deduct $60/t off the futures price?
Why aren’t the CWB being sued for theft?

At this moment, a 400 foot streak of silver is floating across a perfect, calm, Saskatchewan spring morning sky.

And, at this moment, the capsule it was attached to remains on the ground.
It’s uncertain what happened – human error or malfunction – but the balloon separated from its payload at liftoff. Local residents are reporting that the balloon is beginning to descend about 8 miles northwest of the Battlefords.
Update – The launch manager Dale Sommerfelt (via radio interview) reports the balloon has been located 15km west of the Battlefords. No decision has been made about a future attempt – the balloons are designed for single use, and they don’t have a backup. A briefing will be held later today.

(Yesterday’s post continues below)

After a delay earlier in the morning over concerns about winds, a French skydiver has decided to proceed with his bid to try to make history by jumping from the stratosphere above Saskatchewan.
Michel Fournier is scheduled take to the sky Monday morning in a capsule attached to a massive helium balloon and then step out and free fall 40,000 metres to the Earth.
Fournier’s launch manager, Dale Sommerfeldt, said Monday morning the wind is light at the launch site in North Battleford, Sask.
Sommerfeldt said the staff was about to start filling the helium balloon for Fournier’s launch.

The latest by radio is that the wind has risen a little, but that the jump is still a go.
Fournier’s website is here, but under heavy traffic load this morning, so may be slow to access.
Update: latest report is that they have not yet started filling the balloon, so any launch will be after 8am local time, given the 90 minutes that takes. But so far, winds are within allowable limits.
Update: Wind from the SE at 9. They’re doing final checks, and hoping for a 9 am launch time.
I have appointments this morning, and can’t stay on this, so readers are invited to do so in the comments. Hopefully, all goes well!
Update: Postponed on a day-to-day basis, due to wind changes this morning.

Where will Liberal-friendly journalists go to retire?