Plug in a few words about Saskatchewan, and today’s speech to the Saskatoon and District Chamber of Commerce by Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge was a carbon copy of what he said yesterday in Manitoba.

Like a touring rock star, Dodge threw in a few references to the local situation, but otherwise repeated yesterday’s performance. He repeated that the Bank continues to expect that economic growth will be between 1% and 2% in the first half of this yea, accelerating to a range of 3% to 4% in the second half. He also repeated remarks he made last week that the depreciation of the Canadian dollar over the last couple of weeks is not helpful for the economy, nor does it appear to reflect recent positive economic developments in Canada.

He noted that in Saskatchewan, the impact of a slowing world economy was felt mainly through a weakening in commodity prices, which is hurting the agricultural sector and the mining sector too. “After posting very modest growth in 2001, Saskatchewan’s economy is expected to show an improvement this year. A pickup in the global economy should boost commodity prices, which would be a big help to the province.”

Dodge also showed off his farming chops, noting that he has a small cow-calf operation outside Ottawa. “We can try to do something about the economy at the Bank of Canada, but sadly, we can’t do anything about the weather,” he joked.