Measuring the Gap Between Ottawa and Saskatchewan

The emergence of the Buffalo party in the provincial election is a symptom of a broader question of the relationship between Saskatchewan and Ottawa. In short, we don’t have much in the way of ties.

That fact was driven home vividly in a new report that looks at the footprint of government in various regions of the country. On this one, we are our own personality. There’s no influence to speak of from the feds.

There are exactly zero federal government entities headquartered in Saskatchewan. Zero. Compare that to six in BC, three in Manitoba and one in Alberta. Only PEI and Newfoundland and Labrador are also at zero.

Further, we have only one federal government enterprise. That’s Farm Credit. And on that count, FCC does make a significant imprint on the province but as the only truly federal influence here, their capacity to leave a mark is limited.

When you shift to provincial, we have 75 entities in the province and 804 local governments.  On the commercial front we have ten Crowns and 6 local government  businesses such as electrical distribution operations.