By Sarah Mills

Ads selling Saskatchewan to hit national TV networks

Nov 15, 2010 | 3:24 PM

Saskatchewan's government is selling the provincial investment opportunities to the North American business community.

Two TV ads featuring business executives talking about the investment and growth advantages have been produced by the government. They can be viewed on national channels like Discovery, Business News Network, and CBC Newsworld. You may have even spotted them on TSN during the western and eastern semi-final games.

The ads may not be marketed for the Saskatchewan audience, but can certainly be viewed here. But Premier Brad Wall said  that doesn't mean he is trying to curry favour a year before an election.

“We cannot black the ads out. We are not going to black them out for when they are in Saskatchewan,” he said.

MLA Deb Higgins said the premier should have been more up front about where the ads will be played or had them blacked out.

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“There is ways in which you can exclude Saskatchewan if it truly was going to be a national campaign and not just a feel-good campaign ahead of the next election,” she said.

Wall had criticized the NDP for its Wide Open Future campaign that ran here under the Lorne Calvert administration. But the premier fires back that, unlike that series of ads, where 20 per cent of the $8 million campaign was spent locally, there are no local spots this time around.

“You won't hear them on local TV, radio or print,” said Wall.

Higgins argues the timing of what she calls this feel-good campaign is no different.

While the ads focus on business investment, not surprisingly they are all summer-based, and none feature the realities of Saskatchewan's winter.