Saskatchewan - Fact Sheet -
... highest elevation. Soils consist of poorly drained organic matter in the north. Farther in the very flat south, deep, fertile soils developed in areas of glacial deposits .A mixed forest of white and black spruce, jack pine, tamarack, and birch covers northern Saskatchewan, reaching commercial standards along the southern margin. Prairie grasses and woodlands cover the Southwest. 6. Saskatchewan's economy has been defined by agriculture, but the province now has important mining and manufacturing developments. Its service industries, however, account for the greatest percentage of the provincial gross domestic product. Saskatchewan alone produces about two-thirds of the nation's wheat. The province is also a leading producer of other grains, oilseed, and beef cattle. Mining is, after agriculture, is the most important economic activity, with oil, potash, and uranium the main products. Saskatchewan is a leader in fuel production with reserves of oil, lignite, and natural gas. It is Canada's major producer of potash. Regina and Saskatoon are the largest manufacturing centres, with meat processing, petroleum refining, and metal fabricating the main industries. Forestry is important to local northern towns, while commercial fisheries and the fur-trapping industries are of little economic importance. Saskatchewan has 10,553 km of railway track It also has 25,380 km of provincial highways and 197,798 km of local roads. The main transportation routes are highway One (Trans. Canada) and highway 24 which runs from Regina to Saskatoon. 7. In the north the average temperatures for January and July are -31 C and 14 C. In the south January and July average temperatures are -18 C and 18 C. Annual precipitation, totalling 279 mm (11 in), is concentrated during the summer. 8. Saskatchewan's population has been relatively stable for the last 40 years, at around 500 000, although this has started to decline in recent years. Only about 40% of the population are of British origin, Large groups are of German, Ukrainian, Scandinavian, and French ancestry, a legacy of the immigration boom from the United States and Europe in the early 20th century. Also, nearly 95,000 registered native peoples live in the province. 9. The earliest-known inhabitants of Saskatchewan were tribes of the Athapaskan, Algonquian, and Siouan native groups. Charles II of England granted Rupert's Land, including what is now known as Saskatchewan, to the Hudson's Bay Company in 1670. About 1690, Henry Kelsey became the first European visitor to the area. The transfer of Rupert's Land to Canada, in 1870, and the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880s, encouraged homesteading. The resulting loss of land, w...