July 2018

222 223 SASKATOON, SASKATCHEWAN a plant-based protein diet is becoming increasingly important.And right now,we are a major supplier of those pulses to the Middle East, to India, to countries that need that protein. So,we are wanting to grow that.” All of this growth necessitates expan- sion in cultural and recreational aspects, as well.To attract and keep a workforce comprised mostly of Millennials requires a certain type of living space. Compared to larger Canadian centers like Vancouver, Toronto, or Montreal, Saskatoon offers a much better quality of life. “The work/life balance here is much better,” says Clark.“People can live a good life.They can own their own house here and can have what we like to advertise as a ‘two-song commute.’ It takes, literal- ly, two songs in your MP3 player or your CD player while you are getting to work, because it is easy to get around in our city. The other reality is that people are just not as competitive with each other.There is this sense that, here in Saskatoon and Saskatchewan, people work together to build companies.They are not trying to push each other out of the way and climb over each other to get where they want to go.Our environment allows you to be more successful by creating great teams - teams that work together and teams that collaborate so everyone can put their best foot forward.” As the downtown is redeveloped, people are taking some beautiful old warehouse buildings and brick buildings, as well as some old apartments, and remaking themwith an eye for character.The idea is to create vibrancy.“It goes back to the conversation about the Millennials,”Clark interjects. “If we don’t have great restaurants and a good art scene and an interesting city core that gives us that character, it is a lot harder to attract that next generation of staff and talent in the knowledge sector.And we do have some amazing restaurants. Saskatoon has received accolades in Food andWine Magazine as being the hottest food market in 2017. The Wall Street Journal has profiled some of the restaurants here, and The NewYorkTimes identified Saskatoon as number 18 on the list of 52 places in the world to visit in 2018.That is pretty exciting and it was the only Canadian city to make it on the list.” “We just built and opened a new art gallery called the Remai Modern Art Gallery in October of last year,”he continues,“and it has the largest collection of Picasso linocuts in the world. So, that is a kind of a cool story of ‘Picasso on the prairies,’ but it also an incredible collection of prairie and plains art from across North America, and a tremendous collection of art that shows the history of people as artists in this area.” “We have land available and we have a growing regulatory framework working in our region,”Clark