Industry
Prince Albert has relied on several industries
for survival since its inception in 1866. In the past, breweries,
flour mills, brick making, and a massive meat packing plant have boosted
the city's economy. Today, agriculture, forestry, tourism and correctional
institutions are some of the biggest employers in the area.
Agriculture
Farming is one of the most important industries in the Prince Albert area. In 1881, the region produced more than half of all wheat harvested in what was then the Northwest Territories. Prince Albert is also home to the oldest continuing agriculture society in Saskatchewan. The Prince Albert Exhibition Association got its start in 1883.
One hundred years after the exhibition association was formed, another Prairie tradition, the grain elevator, was getting a boost in the community. In 1983 the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool created a state-of- the-art elevator here, capable of processing 160,000 bushels of wheat. The Pool added an 80 acre stockyard nearby in 1988.
Forestry
Weyerhauser
( Courtesy of the
Prince Albert Daily Herald)
Forestry has helped shape the city's economy for more than 120 years.
The first major forestry development took place in the late 1800s. In the winter of 1878-79, one Captain Moore harvested 8,000 logs from the area now known as the Little Red River Park.
In 1905, the Prince Albert Lumber Company was formed by a group of American businessmen. By 1910, the company employed most of the 2,000 men working in the local forestry industry. The company's mill, complete with 50 houses for employees, a general store, pool rooms and a meat shop, was the largest in the Prairie provinces at the time. The company closed in 1918, after it had exploited all the timber in the area, and could no longer turn a profit foraging forests further north.
In 1968, the city became home to another big forestry business, the Prince Albert Pulp Mill. The Prince Albert Herald reported the $65 million mill would employ about 350 people.
In 1986, the mill was sold to American forestry
giant Weyerhaeuser. The company infused $250 million into its Prince
Albert location, and added a paper mill, which opened in 1988. In 2005,
Weyerhaeuser had more than 700 employees on its local payroll.
Penitentiaries
Prince Albert's first penitentiary was constructed by the federal government in 1886. It had 20 cells for both male and female prisoners.
Today, Prince Albert is home to four correctional institutions that house hundreds of inmates. Two provincial correctional centres keep prisoners serving sentences under two years, while the federal government runs two facilities for offenders with sentences of more than two years. The Saskatchewan Penitentiary, established in 1911, is the largest correctional institute in Prince Albert. The penitentiary can hold up to 573 inmates.
Mining
In 1928, copper and nickel were discovered near Rottenstone Lake, 70 miles north of La Ronge. When word spread about the find, Prince Albert experienced a transportation boom from all the eager mining men. By June 1928, three northern air services were flying out of Prince Albert, and the local newspaper declared that the city had finally become a Gateway to the North.
Another major mining discovery occoured in the 1960s.
In 1963, kimberlite, a rare type of volcanic rock that can yield diamonds, was found in the Sturgeon Lake area. Since then, more than 15 corporations have conducted diamond prospecting programs in the Prince Albert area.
In 2003-04, De Beers Canada invested $3.1 million to investigate the diamond potential at Fort a la Corne, about 70 kilometres east of Prince Albert. In 2004, Shore Gold exhumed a 19.7 carat diamond from the Fort a la Corne forest, about 60 kilometres east of Prince Albert.
The diamond was the largest ever found in Saskatchewan.
Numerous gold and uranium discoveries in Northern Saskatchewan during the 20th century also improved employment and the economy in the area.