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Saskatoon Shines

How a little-known dust bowl became a thriving metropolis
XauriEL

You wouldn't know it from looking around but Saskatoon was hit hard by the dollar crash and global warming.  For a while there was a lot of scarcity, utility cutoffs, drought.  We were lucky in a lot of ways too.  The city is right on a major river, and even with the drought there was plenty of prime farm land.  After the oil boom tapped out, there weren't too many resources people wanted to come after - just the uranium in the north, and you can be damn sure the Fed secured that early ;).  And we Saskatchewanians are a hardy breed.  A good part of the population remained 'stay-at-homes' instead of trying their luck out on the coast like a lot of people from the region (and don't we all know how that turned out.)

 However it took much more than luck to make Saskatoon the 'Jewel of the North'.  Under the inspired leadership of mayor Swystun we've embraced the policies that made us great.  Here are a few of the trends that have contributed to Saskatoon's booming population and economic growth:

- Embracing permaculture solutions like sensible crop rotations, managed wetlands ecology, soil reclamation, and poison free farming.  Combining it with innovative agriculture practices, well vetted transgenics, urban agriculture like victory gardens and agro-rise buildings.

- Continuous integration of refugees into local population, civic governance, policing, emergency networks, community organizations.  Embracing the skills and abilities of the displaced.

- Encouragement of solar and wind power in every possibly capacity.  Local bio-diesel and biogas refineries targeted specifically to agricultural and common waste.  Encouragement of healthy water systems and greywater recycling to preserve our precious river.  Urban development and planning heavily oriented towards sustainability solutions.  Heavy local investment in green, sustainable technology innovation.

-  Embracing fair market economics, farmers markets and local goods markets, local currency such as Toonbux and Great Plains Workers Credit, eco-capital and human-capital markets, freecycling and bartering collectives, local business and micro-lending.

 - Development of local network and data architecture, encouraging local government participation, and building a firsty-class education system.

 

Due to these  policies Saskatoon has weathered the shocks of the past years and emerged better and busier than ever.  We`re a small oasis of sanity in a mad world.

Oct 10


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