Around the province.

Moose Jaw Asphalt will begin a $10 million expansion that will enable it to expand its markets in the United States. Currently the company sells to four American states.

Construction has begun on the new $5 million Murray GM building on Thatcher Drive in Moose Jaw. The new facility will employ up to 80 full time and part-time staff.

Interactive Tracking Systems Inc. (Itracks) of Saskatoon is increasing its call centre services to corporate clients to include Internet and telephone based-data collection. The call centre recently expanded from 16 to 32 workstations and plans to have at least 80 by year's end. Parttime staff will grow from 30 to approximately 50.

SED (Systems Engineering Division) of Saskatoon, a subsidiary of Calian Technology Ltd. of Ottawa, reported that after the first quarter of this year, it has a backlog of signed contracts worth $71 million. The signings include an extension of a Canadian Space Agency (CSA) contract of $4.7 million to operate and maintain CSA's satellite operations directorate. As well, a $4.6 million contract was signed with an American defence contractor for sub-assembly work on a transportable radar system. Previously, it had announced a $33 million contract with the European Space Agency to construct a deep space antenna system.

Connacher Oil and Gas Limited in Swift Current has acquired four licenses and two leases comprising 19.25 sections of petroleum and natural gas tights in the Shackleton region. If its initial test wells are successful, Connacher believes it can have sufficient new natural gas reserves and productivity established by the fourth quarter of 2003 to be able to commence natural gas sales during the winter season.

Health Minister John Nilson unveiled $500,000 in funding to plan and design a new hospital in Swift Current. While full funding details are not finalized, it is expected the project will be a $25 million facility, with the provincial government contributing $16-17 million to the construction costs with the local share of the project totalling approximately $9 million.

The Notukeu Processing Plant in Vanguard recently hosted an open house and official grand opening. The plant, which was first proposed in 2000, has been in operation for about a year and the fine-tuning stage is nearly complete. The state-of-the-art plant employs eight full-time and three casual full-time workers.

At the Annual General Meeting and Supper of the East Central Co-op in Kelvington, plans were unveiled for the co-op's new 10,915 square-foot food store. It will include a bakery, delicatessen, smokehouse, on-site parking, and more. The cost of the new building is $1.8 million and construction is slated to start this fall.

A new 12,000 square-foot, $1.1 million liquor store will be built in downtown Yorkton. Work on the new location is already underway.

Residents of Green Lake near North Battleford gathered to commemorate the final signing of a partnership between the Green Lake sawmill and the Northwest Communities Wood Products Ltd. (NWC) that will ensure a wood supply for the sawmill in Green Lake. Seven communities in the northwest are shareholders in NWC, the only community-owned group to hold a term supply licence within Saskatchewan. The new agreement will allow the Green Lake sawmill to increase its production.