Sask also has our own network, and it seems to help things a lot. Been a while since I've shopped for plans, but there was a time when the big 2 charged about 25% less in Sask because they had to compete with Sasktel. They've also got their own MVNO now, Lum Mobile, which is the first to have a vastly different pricing structure than the other options. Buy 3 month/1 year plans up front, and the data bucket is an until you use it thing instead of being a monthly bucket. For about $450 (including all taxes/fees) I've got my cell service paid for the whole year, and will probably still have some data left to carry over then.

Supposedly there's been some big discounts coming around with the newer MVNO's, but its hard to gain traction when people are so used to just walking down to the nearest carrier store for phones/plans, and often choose an expensive monthly plan over buying their devices up front.