It’s a sector that gets almost no headlines, sitting in the middle of the supply chain. But it is an area where Saskatchewan does well. It is the wholesale sector.
The easiest way to describe how the wholesale community in this province did through COVID is: stable. While many other provinces were seeing swings of 30 or 40 percent over the last year, the latest numbers from StatsCan show Saskatchewan barely moved. We were virtually the only province to post gains in June, up a half-point for the month of June and 2.5 percent for the year…virtually unchanged, and the smallest variation in the country.
The wholesale sector includes things like the oil refinery which produces big yet steady numbers and is largely linked to the export community as we ship much of what we handle or produce in this province. Consequently, we have had fewer gyrations in either direction, something that has helped stabilize our economy through the pandemic and resulted in the province regularly posting the lowest unemployment rate and retail volatility.
Nationally, the numbers were far more variable with Ontario and the other Western provinces posting monthly declines in June.
