Acknowledgements | Preface | Saskatchewan Before Provincehood l Saskatchewan Populations & Premiers
1905 | 1915 | 1925 | 1935 | 1945 | 1955 | 1965 | 1975 | 1985 | 1995

Customer using debit card
Swift Current, 1985

Dragline bucket
southeast Saskatchewan coal mine
date unknown

1985

• The hydro-electric station on the Saskatchewan River at Nipawin begins operation. The station can be operated by remote control from Regina.
  
• Métis people gather at Batoche to mark the centennial of the North-West Resistance of 1885.
  
• The debit card, the first in North America, is tested at the Swift Current Pioneer Co-op. Work on the debit card concept had begun in 1981 by the same credit union team in Regina that had introduced the ATM to Canada a few years earlier.

1986

• EROS, the Electron Ring of Saskatchewan, is the highest energy electron machine of its kind in the world. It makes possible a new generation of sub-atomic physics experiments.
• Saskatchewan builds a spectacular glass grain elevator for Expo 86 in Vancouver.

1987

• The University of Saskatchewan begins offering distance education by satellite television.
• The Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology is created when the Institute Act brings together the technical training programs offered at four campuses: Woodland in Prince Albert; Kelsey in Saskatoon; Palliser in Moose Jaw and Wascana in Regina.

1988

• Canada's first heavy oil upgrader is built in Regina by Consumers’ Co-operative Refineries and the Province.
  
• Sylvia Fedoruk is appointed Saskatchewan’s first female Lieutenant-Governor.

1989

• Cellular phone service is introduced in Saskatchewan.
  
• The Office of the Treaty Commissioner is created to address issues relating to First Nations land claims and to educate the public about Treaties.

1990

• Ramon Hnatyshyn, a Saskatoon lawyer, is appointed Canada's Governor-General. He is the first person of Ukrainian descent to hold the office.
  
• A controversial report recommends major changes in health care services in rural Saskatchewan. It calls for 15 regional health districts to replace 400 local health boards.
  
• A Supreme Court of Canada decision gives off-reserve First Nations band members the right to vote in band elections.

1991

• Average farm size in Saskatchewan is 1,091 acres, just over double what it had been in 1951.
  
• The Kramer IMAX Theatre, the first of its kind in the province, opens at the Saskatchewan Science Centre in Regina.
  
• The banks of the Carrot River reveal the remains of a prehistoric crocodile. Nicknamed "Big Bert," it is the world's most complete Teleorhinus crocodile fossil.
  

1992

• The Shand coal-fired power station near Estevan is commissioned. It is named after the village of Shand, a once-flourishing coal mining community.
  
• With the construction of the heavy oil upgrader at Lloydminster, the city becomes the heavy oil capital of the world.
  
• The Dumont Technical Institute opens to provide adult education and technical training to Métis people. It is associated with the Gabriel Dumont Institute.
  
• A Treaty Land Entitlement agreement is signed by the federal and provincial governments and 25 Saskatchewan First Nations bands. The agreement is to make good on Treaty promises of land, which had never been honoured.
  
• Wanuskewin Heritage Park opens near Saskatoon. The park interprets 6000 years of northern plains First Nations culture.

1993

• Prince Albert is the first Saskatchewan city to host the North American Indigenous Games.
  
• The government gambles with the introduction of video lottery terminals following a pilot project the previous year.

1994

• The fossil remains of a Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur dubbed “Scotty” are unearthed at Eastend. It is one of the most complete T. Rex skeletons known.
  
• Saskatchewan Government Insurance introduces “no-fault” insurance, a scheme that had its roots in 1940s Saskatchewan.