By Jim Harding
Briarpatch Magazine
December 2008
Saskatchewan is quickly joining Alberta in the continental corridor supplying oil and gas to the United States. This deepening integration with the resource-intensive U.S. economy, which leaves a toxic legacy on indigenous and Canadian lands, has its roots in a shift that began in the 1960s. This shift, from an agricultural to a mineral resource economy, was stewarded by all of the province’s governing parties. But when it comes to the nuclear industry, Saskatchewan’s identity as an imperial supply station goes back even further. From the beginnings of uranium mining at Uranium City in the 1950s, to its expansion at Rabbit, Cluff, Key and Cigar Lakes in the 1980s, Saskatchewan has played an integral role in the arming of the planet’s pre-eminent nuclear superpower. The province is deeply complicit in the production of depleted uranium weaponry that has contaminated the theatres of U.S. and NATO warfare since the 1990s, and now faces significant pressure to escalate its commitment to the nuclear industry in the coming years.
