“I’m not going to be condemning individuals that are having discussions about the future of their province and the future of our nation.”
Michael Joel-Hansen
Saskatoon StarPhoenix
Saskatchewan’s premier says he won’t condemn a group that is campaigning for a separation referendum in the province, with the Opposition NDP calling Scott Moe’s silence “deafening.”
On Sunday, the first of 15 planned town halls in communities across Saskatchewan was hosted in Saskatoon by Unified Grassroots, a group founded by right-wing influencer Nadine Ness. Among those in attendance was Mitch Sylvestre, CEO of the Alberta Prosperity Project. That group is proposing a referendum question in Alberta that asks if voters “agree that the province of Alberta shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province” of Canada.
The NDP, urging Moe and the provincial government to speak out against the separatists, said multiple slides shown at Sunday’s town hall call for the same referendum question in Saskatchewan.
Unified Grassroots recently launched a petition to hold a sovereignty referendum that has garnered more than 4,000 signatures. For the petition to be successful, it must generate the signatures of around 125,000 adult residents.
“I’m not going to be condemning individuals that are having discussions about the future of their province and the future of our nation,” Moe said on Tuesday in Saskatoon.
“I would say the reason there’s any of the alienation that maybe Saskatchewan and other residents might be feeling is it’s responsive feelings due to some pretty detrimental policies that have been put in place, unconsulted policies, by the federal government for over a decade.”
Moe was a long-time critic of the Liberal Party and Justin Trudeau as prime minister, battling the federal government in court, on social media and in the public eye.
Moe this week said there is an opportunity with Prime Minister Mark Carney “to change course with respect to some of those policies, to change course in how they enact these policies, consult with the provinces, consult with the people, so that we don’t have this feeling of alienation in Saskatchewan and in other areas of Canada.”
The Opposition NDP has called on Moe and the Saskatchewan Party repeatedly to speak out against those advocating for a separatist referendum or supporting the idea of Saskatchewan leaving Canada. This week, the NDP voiced concern over the potential negative economic impact of a separatist campaign.
“They want to separate, even as talk of such a thing will have devastating effects on our economy,” NDP Trade and Export Development critic Kim Breckner said.
Breckner noted the impact being felt in Alberta. ATCO Ltd. chief executive Nancy Southern said earlier this month that Asian partners in a major hydrogen project in the province won’t make final investment decisions unless there is certainty around the issue of separatism in Alberta.
“It will kill jobs, stall investment, and we could see whole head offices cleared out,” Breckner said.
“Scott Moe has refused to condemn this separatist movement. His silence on this is deafening. Now, we have a separatist campaign running in full swing in Saskatchewan and I fear it’s our economy and our future that will suffer.”
