Nykole King
Regina Leader-Post
Premier Scott Moe’s year was characterized by geopolitics and an unpredictable trade war that saw tariffs hit Saskatchewan from three flanks.
While U.S. President Donald Trump faced off with Prime Minister Mark Carney over punitive tariffs, Moe had to deal with the fallout of that dispute in addition to new levies imposed by China and India which created a further threat to Saskatchewan’s economy.
Meanwhile, the province faced a separate dilemma on its northern front as residents were forced to flea their communities this summer because of record-setting wildfires.
It all added up to an eventful year for Saskatchewan’s premier, who addressed those challenges and more in a year-end interview with the Regina Leader-Post.
(The following has been edited for length and clarity.)
Q: Your government has been criticized due to the devastating wildfires. What have you learned from it this year?
A: What I’ve really learned is in order for the community and families to have confidence to rebuild — in not only Denare Beach but any northern community — we need to do a better job working with northern communities and (the) federal government on properly fire-smarting those communities …
“Last but not least … I needed to be in the community sooner. I had many things to do and I should have put some of those things aside to go to the community and to listen to them (and) to talk to them. And so if there’s the opportunity that I had this summer to maybe do something different, that would have been at the forefront.
Q: With the new Compassionate Intervention Act for involuntary drug treatment, is there any guarantee it will work?
A: It was introduced in the last days (of the fall legislative session) so we can have this very open discussion before it passes sometime in the spring if there needs to be tweaks and amendments and things. We want to have that discussion so that it’s the most effective act that we have in the nation — ensuring that families, police officers (and) physicians have the ability to implement that act on, likely what will be, a remarkably low number of individuals.
But we’re hopeful that the help will be effective in the cases where it is (needed) … We want the act to also be compassionate to that individual but providing them with a more forward path and more direct path to a recovery lifestyle.”
Q: The budget went from a small surplus to a $427-million deficit. Are you happy with that mid-year result?
A: No, I’m not happy. I want to balance the budget each and every year that we’re here. That being said, with what we’re seeing in the international trade challenges (and) tariff-related challenges, we’re seeing a Canadian economy that is struggling today. We’re seeing a federal financial picture which is really struggling when it comes to the revenue lines, and you’re seeing that in provincial finances across the nation as well …
In today’s very uncertain global trading environment, and given how globally connected we are, we are finding our way as well (as) — or in most cases better than — any other province across the nation with the lowest deficit per capita across Canada … so we stack up very well.
Q: Saskatchewan has international trade offices in China and India, both of which placed tariffs on Canadian agriculture this year. What have those trade offices done for the province?
A: There is a way to engage with China that Saskatchewan very much was a part of bringing our nations back to that negotiating table … Subnational leadership and relationships can help expedite the path back to that negotiating table — the path through what are sometimes some pretty frigid relations to a future that is providing opportunity for both sides in that conversation.
So that’s the role that I see our trade offices providing is that continuity between visits. In China’s case, (there was) a six-year gap between any other Canadian premier and the visit that I had provided. We had an office doing work all along the way which provided us some extremely high-level meetings in the lead-up to that prime minister and presidential visit.
Q: Why is the relationship with Prime Minister Mark Carney working better than with former PM Justin Trudeau?
A: Today what we see is Prime Minister Carney is an individual that is much more open to consulting and listening and working together to find a collaborative path forward … We have a different challenge under Prime Minister Carney, and it’s other international leaders that are imposing tariff policy on Canada, and it’s threatening not only our Saskatchewan economy but our Canadian economy.
And so it’s incumbent on us — myself and nine other provincial premiers — to come together to support our federal government in finding a way to the negotiating table and finding our way to some trade peace and some trade agreements.
