THE PRAIRIE PROVINCES As was the case in other Canadian provinces, the government of Saskatchewan established an air service to handle jobs such as forestry oversight, air ambulance flights to remote regions, and aerial survey and photography work. But Saskatchewan's outfit was different in one way: it was also created to function as a regular scheduled airline. Saskatchewan Government Airways (SGA) was the outgrowth of the aviation services established by the provincial Department of Public Resources in 1945. Based at Prince Albert, in the middle of the province and north of the major population centers of Saskatoon and Regina, the focus of operations was on the sparsely populated area to the north, which lacked railroads and proper highways. In 1947, the Department of Public Resources purchased MC Aviation, which operated regular and charter flights to remote points in the northern part of the province. The MC services became the foundation of SGA's commercial network. Many of the company's passengers were mining engineers, sportsmen, prospectors, and government employees headed north into the lake-dotted region that included settlements such as La Ronge, Stony Rapids, and Fond-du-Lac.
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