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By: Grant Wilde, President & CEO, Spartan Controls
This place we call home, Canada, is outstanding in so many ways. From the landscapes to the mountains to the seascapes, coast to coast to coast, we are so fortunate to live and work in such an extraordinary place. Beyond the beauty, we also enjoy a standard of living that is exceptional by any measure and unmatched by almost anywhere else in the world. In just over 150 years, we have developed from a new country with many willing and resilient new Canadians striving to build a nation, to one of the most modern and prosperous societies on earth. It has been possible only because of an abundance of Canadian resourcefulness and resources. The year 2020 will certainly be remembered by most of us as unlike any experienced before. To ensure we continue to prosper and deliver our modern world, it is vitally important that we consciously bring our collective strengths together; leveraging our resourcefulness while responsibly developing and exporting our resources.
Growing up in a rural small town in Western Canada, the importance of ‘getting the crop off’ could not be clearer. Our small community depended on the success of local farmers. It was only when I became a young adult that I came to understand the value of our Canadian resources. As the world’s number one exporter of agriculture crops including: canola, oats, maple syrup, lentils, dry peas and fabulous blueberries, in very material ways, the rest of the world was also depending on our farmers and rural Canadians.
As a graduate engineer, I soon began to realize, beyond farming and food for the world’s tables, Canada had amazing other natural resources. As the fourth largest oil producer in the world, we have helped power our industrial complex and transportation networks from planes, trains to ships and automobiles. Our oil also contributes to the making of over six thousand other products used in our daily lives, from the clothes we wear and the phones we use, to the toys our children enjoy, and the cars we drive.
Globally, Canada is the sixth largest producer of natural gas. We fortunately have the abundance of another energy source that efficiently heats our homes, is used by some to cook their food, and helps create a wide variety of useful derivative products such as fertilizer for our crops, to plastics and other molecules, like hydrogen, essential for a greener energy source.
Canada is also a powerhouse for mining. Hard rock metals like uranium, aluminium, zinc, gold and copper have a wide variety of uses from electricity generation, to automotive manufacturing, jewelry and electronics. Significant current and future mining opportunities exist in graphite, cobalt and lithium, which are essential for battery production. We are the second largest miner in the world of niobium, used in the production of semi conductors, and essential to our world’s computer technology platforms. We are also number one in the key mineral of potash, with about 30 per cent of the world’s potash produced in Saskatchewan, another key ingredient in fertilizer which ensures successful growth of the world’s food crops.
Canada leads the world in forestry products, with the third largest forested land mass in the world. We have responsibly developed our forests over several generations now, producing a broad range of building materials for our homes, print materials for our enjoyment and many other consumer products.
Canada also has the world’s largest fresh water supply. Water is the key resource for the success of any society, including growing our food, and generating almost 70 per cent of our electricity across our great country.
I could go on, however, perhaps the point has been made. By any measure, as Canadians, we are blessed with an amazing richness of natural resources that have driven almost unmatched prosperity.
Having the resources doesn’t necessarily mean success though. That is where resourcefulness comes in. Canada boasts a world leading 57 per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds with post secondary education. Additionally, with several Canadian universities in the QS World University Rankings top 40, we make the top 5 per cent in their global ranking. A well-educated population has been an essential part of nation building, creating strong vibrant communities, innovating and unleashing the bounty of resources and prosperity we have. It is also key to leveraging the latest technology to add value to those resources.
Canada is a leading exporter in so many natural resources, not just because we have them, but because we have the intellectual know-how to develop them, responsibly and competitively. High productivity often includes intensive physical, human and intangible capital. Adaption of advanced technologies and economies of scale are critical to developing strong competitively priced exportable products and services, which in turn are necessary for economic prosperity and employment. Expert knowledge is also critical to adding unique value to those resources.
Exports bring in revenue and investment to create jobs, promote further growth, and of course, pay for the outstanding social programs from health to education that we cherish and each benefit from as citizens. Exports are essential in building the Canada we know and love. In a post COVID economy, they need to play an even bigger role in crossing the debt chasm that has been created. Imports in general terms contribute to our standard of living, but they cost money. Money that is often paid to others in far away locations. For Canada to thrive again, the largest elements of our exports; crude oil/natural gas/petroleum products, metals/minerals/related products, forestry products, farm/fishing/food products, plastic and rubber products all need to take flight again.
We need to get after the job at hand. That’s what the farmers in my hometown always did. We have the resources and the resourcefulness to return our economy to pre-COVID times and better. Working together, we have created proven ways to develop our resources, add value to them and do it while meeting some of the toughest regulatory standards in the world. Sustainability concerns are paramount, and it is in our collective best interests to ensure ‘what we do and how we do it’ continue to improve.
On our journey to ‘do no harm’ or ‘net zero emissions’, we can continuously improve as we innovate, leverage our technology and specific leading industry knowledge base, to do our part to improve industrial and resource development. That has been the Canadian story for as long as there has been a Canada. Learning, improving, growing and leading, together.
All development has some type of environmental impact. There is no sustainability free lunch, so to speak. Our technology intensive world now has big tech, cloud computing, big data and the necessary supporting infrastructure of server centres that are enormous consumers of energy, metals and materials. Computers and cell phones require unimaginable amounts of precious metals and plastics. Batteries for cars, windmills and solar panels for generating electricity, require moving and mining tonnes of the earth’s materials, along with the extraction of many precious metals, to support the manufacture of just one of these items. There is no “impact free” resource or energy source development.
As a Canadian supplier of industrial automation, we are fortunate to work with outstanding resource and energy-based companies across all industries and sectors: oil & gas, mining, food & beverage, forestry, power, water & wastewater and pharma. For almost six decades, we have been helping our customers be resourceful in developing their resources, by leveraging world class hardware and software technology and implementing creative solutions. Many globally leading technology intensive methods of responsible resource development either were created locally or are being applied locally.
Like our customers across sectors, we will continue to innovate and deliver an ever-improving modern world, by leveraging our collective strengths built on a foundation of extra ordinary experience, resourcefulness, reputation and resources. That is what will ensure Canada continues to prosper. Let’s go team Canada!
Visit Spartan Controls HERE
Author Bio
Grant Wilde is the President & CEO of Spartan Controls Ltd. Spartan is a private, employee owned technology company that sells, applies and services process automation, valve, measurement and process control solutions on behalf of Emerson and other leading manufacturers – serving industrial process customers for over 55 years from 14 locations across Western Canada.
Grant has held a variety of roles in his 25 years at Spartan including business group and Customer segment executive leadership; sales, marketing and business unit management; and front-line sales. Prior to Spartan, he worked for a rotating equipment manufacturer and a pipeline company.
He is a current or past member of various private company and association boards and has held several advisory board roles within Emerson and the Strategic Growth Partners. He is also a past president of the Gas Processors Suppliers Association of Canada. Grant has been involved with executive development through the Queen’s School of Business, the Global Institute of Leadership Development (GILD) and the Institute of Corporate Directors. He is a Professional Engineer and Mechanical Engineering graduate of the University of Alberta.
Grant and Spartan Controls are active advocates for children & families and industry education, showing their support through charities like the United Way, local advanced Polytech and University programs & facilities, and local communities. He lives in Calgary with his wife Sandy, and they have two grown children.
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