Squandered : Canada's potash legacy

"Potassium is a necessary ingredient of the fertilizer required to feed a growing world population. Accordingly, prices and corporate profits have soared to unprecedented levels in recent decades. While other countries such as Saudi Arabia and Norway have taken steps to capture the value of their natural resources for their people, Saskatchewan has failed to leverage the value of its potash and has given much of it up for an inadequate price. Billions of dollars of forgone revenue has resulted in tax unfairness, program underfunding and malfunction, and a growing and worrying divide between the affluent and the very poor. Analysts from across the political spectrum have identified this revenue problem, as well as a straightforward solution. Unfortunately, the Saskatchewan government has declined to review the situation and instead seems to rely upon the advice of the industry itself. The province now faces the game-changing issue of how to appropriately tax the small number of multinational conglomerates that own these potash mines. Whether or not the province obtains reasonable value for its potash will determine whether Saskatchewan will be a place of opportunity for all of its citizens or continue on a path of wealth for a few and extreme poverty for many. Eric Cline practiced law in his hometown of Saskatoon prior to serving 16 years in the Saskatchewan legislature, where he held several senior cabinet positions, including Health, Finance, and Industry and Resources. After politics, he worked for 12 years as a corporate executive in the mining sector before establishing an arbitration practice and working as a professional fused-glass artist."--