BHP Billiton is wanting to buy the Potash Corp of Saskatchewan and a lot of people in the business and political communities are running around in circles wondering what it will all mean once the deal shakes down. A free enterprise premier has said he'll set up protectionist measures if need be, to ensure Saskatchewan people don't get the potash mine shaft. That's nice, I guess.The price of just under $39 billion is supposedly not enough for the world's largest single potash producer. So here's my feeble $1 worth of thoughts on the subject.Why doesn't Potash Corp team up with Agrium and Mosaic and buy out BHP? Certainly they've heard of reverse takeovers, haven't they? Maybe they're not interested in staying in business though. Or maybe the head of Potash Corp, Mr. Doyle, really does want to cash out his $500,000,000 in shares and severance payments and head home to Chicago. This is where he is apparently running Potash Corp from anyway.BHP Billiton has promised to put head office jobs in Saskatoon, but we know they won't. They'll put some false front folks in some fancy digs downtown, but the power structure will remain in Australia and the profits will flow there. It's what we call a global economy and this is how it goes. Our Viterra, once known as Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, has taken over a major Australian company and although it's head office is presumably Regina, we know that major power shuffles within its corporate ranks are slowly making Calgary its power base. BHP says they'll maybe go along with the co-operative selling arm known as Canpotex that the three potash suppliers in Saskatchewan use to sell to the world, but for the most part, they set their own markets and prices. And as far as protecting the province's resource interests didn't we once have an oil company known as SaskOil that begot Wascana that begot Nexen that kinda got dismantled and moved to Calgary? What happened there? Anybody heard of Ipsco? Something called Evraz now owns it and no Saskatchewan-based corporate presence of note can be found there, at least not since Roger Phillips retired. So I guess what I'm trying to say here, is that deals that shuffle billions of dollars around, like the Nexens, Viterras, Evrazes and Potash Corp are bigger than anything we might be able to push in their way to try to stop them and really should we try to stop them? If we can't build a head office base here in Saskatchewan after 120 years of trying, then maybe we just have to accept our fate and be happy with royalty payments, decent payrolls and strong employment figures while the profits and decision making head elsewhere.Sherritt Coal and oil companies like Penn West and many others don't sweat the fact that their major administrative decisions are made in places other than Saskatchewan. SaskPower doesn't mind shifting management decisions to an Ontario corporation it's all part of the never-ending game, especially in the resource sector. Oh, by the way, after BHP Billiton buys Sask Potash Corp., I think they'll decide to ship the product from their port in Washington state, not from Canada. At least that's what I think, I think.If we dig the well to find the water and get paid for it, then haul the water and get paid for it why should we concern ourselves with who sells the water and what their profit margin is?Just some thoughts to ponder while you sip some coffee.
