The exceptional sales or revenue numbers generated by manufacturers in Saskatchewan are showing no signs of letting up and, if anything, they are growing.
Statistics Canada released a string of reports this week detailing the performance of downstream sectors of the economy. They portray Saskatchewan as an economy with a rapidly developing value-added component.
Sales revenues generated by manufacturers broke through the $2 billion a month barrier in February and then March topped that by another 11 per cent. Compared to the same time a year ago, revenues have jumped 45 per cent.
No other province even came close to that growth. It was Regina firms driving the expansion. They were up 23 per cent for the month which was almost 60 per cent higher than a year ago. Both those figures were tops among all major cities.
On the related metric of volumes for the wholesale sector, the story was slightly different. Sales in March were down from February, largely because farm supplies for spring seeding — products such as fertilizer and chemical — had already made their way through the system, but the total was still 45 per cent higher than last year.
