Colonsay is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in the

Rural Municipality A rural municipality is a classification of municipality, a type of local government, found in several countries. These include: * Rural municipality (Canada), Rural municipalities in Canada, a Lists of municipalities in Canada, type of municipa ...

of Colonsay No. 342, in the

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

. Colonsay is located on

Highway 16 Route 16, or Highway 16, can refer to: International * Asian Highway 16 * European route E16 * European route E016 Australia - Thompsons Road (Victoria) - South Australia Canada ;Parts of the Trans-Canada Highway: *Yellowhead Hi ...

(the

Yellowhead Highway The Yellowhead Highway (french: Route Yellowhead) is a major interprovincial highway in Western Canada that runs from Winnipeg to Graham Island off the coast of British Columbia via Saskatoon and Edmonton. It stretches across the four western ...

part of the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway ( French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean o ...

) running east–west in central Saskatchewan near the intersection with Highway 2. Colonsay derived its name from the

Inner Hebrides The Inner Hebrides (; Scottish Gaelic: ''Na h-Eileanan a-staigh'', "the inner isles") is an archipelago off the west coast of mainland Scotland, to the south east of the Outer Hebrides. Together these two island chains form the Hebrides, whic ...

Scottish

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

Colonsay Colonsay (; gd, Colbhasa; sco, Colonsay) is an island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, located north of Islay and south of Mull. The ancestral home of Clan Macfie and the Colonsay branch of Clan MacNeil, it is in the council area of Argyll ...

All the streets in the village are also named after islands located along the west coast of Scotland.

History

Colonsay experienced a record setting 167-day-long frost-free period in 1978, which was, to the dismay of a number of residents, still not a long enough growing season for yams or

sweet potatoes The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the bindweed or morning glory family, Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a root vegetable. The young sho ...

. The ship

U-Sea Colonsay The ''Ultra Colonsay'' is a Panamax bulk cargo carrier owned by Toei Japan. It was built as ''U-Sea Colonsay'' for Canpotex of Canada to transport potash between Canada and destinations in Asia. The ship made its maiden voyage in October 2011 fr ...

is named after the local potash mine.

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...

, Colonsay had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Climate

Economy

The main economy of the area is agriculture featuring grain crops such as wheat, canola, barley, oats, rye, as well as lentils and peas. Livestock raised in the vicinity are cattle, hogs, sheep, and buffalo. The potash mine of Colonsay was first named Noranda Mines Potash Division then separately constituted as Central Canada Potash. Central Canada Potash was acquired by Imc. Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, Colonsay, IMC Potash Colonsay and is now Mosaic Potash Colonsay. Potash is mined and sold to crop nutrient manufacturers for fertilizer, as well as for use as

icemelter Deicing is the process of removing snow, ice or frost from a surface. Anti-icing is the application of chemicals that not only deice but also remain on a surface and continue to delay the reformation of ice for a certain period of time, or prev ...

ingredient and

water softener Water softening is the removal of calcium, magnesium, and certain other metal cations in hard water. The resulting soft water requires less soap for the same cleaning effort, as soap is not wasted bonding with calcium ions. Soft water also extend ...

regenerant.

Sports

Colonsay & District Sports Centre was re-opened in 2006 following fund raising efforts by the community as well as funding initiatives such as the Green Municipal Investment Fund, a joint venture of the Government of Canada and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. The Sports Centre has a new heating system as well as ''ice-cube heat'' which will allow a longer artificial ice season for skaters, curlers and ice hockey players. The Colonsay Monarchs were a team that played for the Northern Saskatchewan Baseball League as of 1951.

References

External links

* {{Coord, display=title, name=Colonsay, Saskatchewan, 51, 59, N, 105, 53, W, region:CA_type:city Colonsay No. 342, Saskatchewan Towns in Saskatchewan Mining communities in Saskatchewan