P.A. tree celebrates milestone at Saskatchewan Legislature

Dec 13, 2017 | 11:14 AM

There is a Prince Albert connection to the large tree that grows on the premier’s balcony at the Saskatchewan Legislative building.

The tree which is now nearly 25 years old, comes from Gaudet Farm. Ray Gaudet said he takes a deep sense of pride in his work.

“I like the idea knowing it’s us that [did] that. We’ve done that on another legislature in another region of the country as well,” he said.

The Gaudet family has been supplying trees to the legislature for almost five years. The first tree supplied was a 1,000 pound white spruce. He said it took 11 people to take the tree up to the premier’s balcony, and all the work was done by hand.

Gaudet said his farm has since supplied much lighter and easier to handle Balsam Firs.

The family tree business has really grown since launching nearly 30 years ago. Today, the business ships thousands of trees annually across western Canada and the territories.

Gaudet said the demand for natural Christmas trees remains stable. He added, however, the tree business itself is changing as people move away from buying their trees from private vendors and buying instead from the big box stores. 

“When you buy natural trees from a private vendor, usually it’s a full service thing, you get a small thank you, a handshake, a Merry Christmas, and they will haul your tree out for you,” he said. “You don’t get any of that experience from box stores, you really just go up to a rack and say ‘I want that one’ and you pay for it in the store.”

 

nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell