I would like to thank the folks with BHP Billiton for making a pitch for Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan. Their doing so has now given me an answer to one of my wife's frequent questions.
"Honey, what do you think of this place?"
Some background: My wife, Michelle, likes to fantasize over house plans. These are not the ordinary plans of the week you find in the local paper classified section. No, these are monstrous mansions of much money.
Now I can tell her, "Oh, you like that one, you should have married the CEO of Potash Corp!"
Instead, she got a reporter and photographer. Bummer.
The Globe and Mail ran a story Oct. 15 about Bill Doyle's history with Potash Corp, how he came to become the president of the organization, how he has been instrumental in taking the company from $625 million to at least $38.6 billion in value. But the most interesting thing for me was his impact on Saskatoon real estate.
It turns out, I have driven my vehicle or rode my bike past his place dozens, maybe hundreds of times. His former Saskatoon home is just a half dozen doors down from the parents of my best friend, Jason.
Many, many years ago they lucked into purchasing one of the most exclusive lots in Saskatoon, one of only a few dozen you can launch a canoe from. They are not rich, but hardworking professionals - the only doctor and engineer I know whose preferred vehicle was not a Mercedes, but a Geo Metro.
Down that street, a nice home was demolished during the 1990s and a new one went up. This house, mentioned briefly in the Globe article, is apparently 6,000 square feet. I once took a riverboat ride and saw it pointed out from the water's angle. The guide mentioned it was owned by the CEO of PCS.
I never had a true impression of how big this place was until I saw it on the "Birds Eye" of Bing Maps (www.bing.com). Microsoft decided to do Google's Streetview one better, and do a similar thing with an airplane, getting four-angle directional views. Try it. Look for the biggest house on the south side bank of the river as it flows through Saskatoon. You'll be impressed.
Doyle may have moved to Chicago because he wife apparently wasn't impressed with Saskatoon schools (I recall my friend, as Saskatoon-native, saying something derisive about that a long time ago), but he did leave a nice house. And apparently he still has an apartment in Saskatoon, where he spends about a week a month.
Having Potash Corp calling Saskatchewan home has benefits, lots of them. Doyle may have become something of an absentee CEO, but having important people in a major global company here in Saskatchewan is a big deal. Both the NDP and Saskatchewan Party are making noises about bringing some of those executive jobs home from Chicago.
I don't care what BHP Billiton says. If PCS becomes a subsidiary, it will be a subsidiary forever, and all the spinoffs from having a Saskatchewan-based company will be gone. Look at what happened with the foreign takeovers of steelmakers and miners in recent years. Lots of promises, and lots of broken promises. More importantly, lots of jobs lost, and wealth flowing elsewhere.
As for this "white knight" stuff, that never did make sense. You don't want Australian control, so Chinese ownership is better? How about being master of your own destiny, and saying to hell with all of them?
Protectionism against foreign investment is generally frowned upon. But Canada's 'corporate jewels' in recent years have been turning to glass under foreign ownership. We need to keep something for ourselves.
Maybe Saskatoon will get some more nice houses out of the deal.
- Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at [email protected]
