Sask. is taking a smaller cut from growing potash profits, and this former minister is calling for change

A former NDP cabinet minister and mining executive hopes his new book will raise public awareness on what he says is the issue of tax fairness from potash companies.

"It's a very important issue for the province, which will make a big difference in terms of the future of the province and whether we have more equality of opportunity, or what I see as a growing divide between people desperately living in poverty and people whose wealth is increasing," said Eric Cline on CBC's Blue Sky with Leisha Grebinski on Wednesday.

Cline is the author of a new book called Squandered: Canada's Potash Legacy, which is about how the government has not made the most of the resource.

Saskatchewan is the number 1 potash producer on the planet, and it's used mainly in the production of fertilizer — which is then used by farmers around the globe for better crop production.

The flat terrain of the province makes access to mining the mineral much easier than in other regions like Alberta, which has a more rocky geographic makeup, according to Cline.

He argues what the Saskatchewan government and people are getting out of the windfall profits from potash companies would "shock" people.

"The tax and royalties we will receive for 2023 are ... $730 million, which a year ago was estimated to be $1.3 billion," said Cline.

"That $730 million is on $9 billion of revenue to the company."

Cline said in 2015 companies paid more on revenue — about 12 per cent — of $6 billion, and about the same amount on $5.7 billion in 2018, but in 2023 with up to $9 billion, companies paid only eight per cent.

"I think most people understand that as your income goes up, you pay more tax on the additional dollars you make. But with the potash companies, as their income has been going up on higher prices, and most of it is windfall profits, we're actually taking a lower percentage from them and nobody else gets that deal," said Cline.

During budget debate at the legislature on March 25, Saskatchewan Party MLA Warren Kaeding took aim at when the NDP nationalized the potash industry in the 1970s.

The NDP purchased five mines and created the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (PCS) as a Crown corporation in 1975, but it was ultimately privatized and sold off in 1989 by the Grant Devine-led Progressive Conservative Party government. It later merged with Agrium to form Nutrien.

"When the NDP nationalized the potash industry in this province in the '70s, capital investment stopped," said Kaeding.

"It wasn't till our government was firmly in place before capital flowed back into the Saskatchewan economy."