The Saskatchewan Boom

In November I had the privilege of attending the 2016 ABEX awards in Saskatoon, the most prestigious business award ceremony in all of Saskatchewan. After interacting with countless interesting and passionate people from many areas of the business and political world, I came to realize that in the past few decades Saskatchewan has flourished in it’s economy, business and most importantly, people. The great minds of this province are the ones to thank for this wonderful progress.

The first ABEX ceremony I attended completely changed the way I look at business in our province. Saskatchewan has grown an impressive lot since the 70’s and 80’s, when the province was suffering a population and decline. Today, All  of Saskatchewan’s farmland is estimated to be worth $33.46 billion dollars, with the economy mainly consists of agriculture and mining. Although, the prairies aren’t the only things that make up Saskatchewan. Our province is also flourishing with great businesses, all of which have made a positive difference to the community and the entire planet.  One great company as such is helping millions of farmers sleep calmly at night.

 

Seeing the opprotunity to make a positive change in farming and agriculture, Global AG risk solutions was started with one goal: To make sure farmers had peace of mind about money and do what they do best: Farm. The company provides a special kind of agricultural insurance, that makes sure you don’t go into debt if your crops don’t yield as much as you expected. Here is an example. Will has a farm of 10 thousand acres. His fixed cost per acre is $150, which is labor, machinery and land expenses. Will’s varying costs per acre are $150, like chemical, fertilizer and seed. This means Will must make at least minimum of $3 million dollars in revenue in order to cover his expenses expenses. If Will wanted to, he would have a choice to be covered for three million dollars in total to make sure he doesn’t run into debt. Also, if Will decides that extra fertilizer would help boost yields, Ag Risk Solutions would cover him for that. As Will puts in more money, his insurance goes up. Expansion has lead to Global Ag Risk Solutions to help farmers all over the world.

 

Butch Sinclair, COO

At the 2016 ABEX awards I had the pleasure of dining with Butch Sinclair, The Chief Operating Officer of Global Ag Risk solutions. Mr. Sinclair and I had chatted for hours about topics varying all over, from bullfighting in Spain to starting a business in Moose Jaw, the man clearly accomplished a lot. I jumped at the opprotunity to ask him as many questions as. At first, we talked about the business Butch was a part of. I remember him telling me how their lead competitor was the government, which quite amazed me. Butch explained how they were faced with challenges as a start-up, but they are all paying off by his teams hard work. I had learned an undisputed amount from Mr. Sinclair, and his work ethic and passion for his job drove him to become one of the leaders of a business that all of Saskatchewan can be proud of.