Saskatchewan-Manitoba

Once Manitoba's most successful homegrown restaurant chain, Grapes is down to its last location. The 30-year-old institution closed down its Pembina Highway store last month, leaving Winnipeg without a Grapes location for the first time since 1980.

Neil Hebert, president of Empire Development, has completed the first of what he hopes is several stages in the rebirth of 160 acres on the east side of Lake Winnipeg in the Rural Municipality of Alexander.

"It would seem to us at first glance that their interest and the interest of taxpayers of Saskatchewan may not be aligned," said Saskatchewan Energy Minister Bill Boyd. The province flexed its muscle in the Potash Corp.

The Stewart Southern Railway (SSR) has officially opened along one of the longest and straightest stretches of rail in the world.

Alpine Plant Foods has opened an $8 million liquid phosphate fertilizer plant in Belle Plaine, about 50 kilometres west of Regina. The company had been serving Western Canada from a facility in New Hamburg, Ontario.

Saskatchewan remains on track to record a significantly higher number of wells drilled in 2010 compared with 2009, the Petroleum Services Association of Canada predicts in its third-quarter update.

Improvements to the Provincial Disaster Assistance Program as a result of a stormy summer will cost the Saskatchewan treasury an additional $100 million this year, of which $40 million will be spent on road repairs.

The demand for housing has created the first anomaly for a bedroom community: Martensville's average house prices are higher than in Saskatoon, and perhaps the highest in the province.

Niebergall said construction of 1,000 homes would produce 4,500 jobs, $210 million in wages and $580 million in residential construction value. There were 2,307 building permits issued in 2009 worth a record $458.

Layng had served as assistant deputy minister, treasury board branch, at finance since 2005. Layng replaced Doug Matthies, who became president of SaskWater Corp. Ron Styles moved from president and CEO of the Crown Investments Corp.