By Sarah Stone

Latin America interested in Sask. ag, mining expertise

Jun 1, 2013 | 12:04 PM

It was a busy few days last week for Prince Albert MP Randy Hoback as he travelled with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

From May 22-24 Hoback accompanied the prime minister on a trip to Peru and Colombia to boost trade initiatives and build business opportunities between Canada and Latin American countries.

While in Peru the president Ollanta Humala Tasso and his members of cabinet met with the Harper and Hoback to discuss removing hurdles to help trade and business flow.

Trade talks continued when they travelled to Cali, Columbia for a multi-lateral event, Pacific Alliance Leaders’ Summit involving Mexico, Chile, Peru and Columbia.

Canada is the only observer from the G8, but Hoback said at this point they won’t be joining the Alliance because the group is discussing free movement of not just trade, but people.

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“We just can’t allow some of those countries involved in the Alliance to come into Canada without a visa—it’s just not on right now. To do that the US would probably restrict us to have visas to go into the US,” he explained.

However, despite Canada’s stance on the Alliance, he said the business development and trade in those countries are promising. Investing and partnering with the growth, Hoback said, will benefit a few sectors of Saskatchewan.

“We have lots of different mining companies down there doing different types of development work there, plus if you look at the agriculture sector, that sector is growing and expanding [and]they’re looking for Canadian technologies to help them in their agriculture sector,” he said.

Currently, University of Saskatchewan is conducting research and development of new crops, varieties and plant breeding and Canada is looking at opportunities that could be shared between the countries.

In addition to the agriculture sector, those countries are looking Saskatchewan’s mining sector.

“We’ve got great expertise in how to do both pit mining and underground mining,” he said. “They see a lot of synergies with Saskatchewan because they’re very similar economies.”

It’s more than just the expertise in mining technologies, but that are interesting the Alliance—it’s the level of corporate responsibility those companies have created.

“We’ve got some mining companies that are working up in northern Saskatchewan who have done a great job working with the aboriginal communities and in including them in the mining, not just as jobs , but in the investments and supporting the mines. Cameco is a good example, so they want to look at those types of opportunities.”

Labour safety standards across borders

As Saskatchewan residents start to increase their investment in foreign countries, the question arises about the level of labour safety standards.

Hoback said there are a few cases where companies are not following and ensuring optimal safety rules, but the government is working with them to bring that stand up to par.

He continued on to explain more often than not when Canadian companies invest in those countries they are raising the bar on safety care and regulations in that area, forcing nearby companies to “pick up their game”.

“You can see there’s a culture of proper safety … conditions and proper working conditions to make sure nobody gets hurt,” he said.

By the end of May the Pacific Alliance will identify 90 per cent of the barriers stopping free trade and put a schedule in place to remove them. By the end of June, the remaining 10 per cent that are more delicate will be identified and plan put in place.

Hoback is optimistic in trade and business in those countries for Saskatchewan residents and feels it will only get better.

“Trade is growing, their economies are growing and it’s good natural growth. It’s growth around six, seven percent … they’re definitely economies we want to be a part of.”

sstone@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahstone84