Ryan Kiedrowski
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The World-Spectator
In the mining world, Saskatchewan has a lot to brag about, and the provincial government is saying the province is poised to make Canada an energy and mining superpower.
Fresh off an Energy and Mines Ministers Conference in Prince Edward Island, Colleen Young realized exactly how Saskatchewan is leading the way for growth across Canada.
“I was proud to discuss how innovative Saskatchewan is in our energy and resource sectors,” said the provincial Energy and Resources Minister. “Ministers from across the country explored how addressing the challenges in the resource sectors can serve as opportunities for growth nationwide. The largest takeaway for me was that it is clear that Saskatchewan is leading the charge in many of these areas. A major focus of this meeting was on the need to build a strong, secure and competitive resource sector across Canada, and from a Saskatchewan perspective, we are in a great position to help manage that change.”
Front and centre for Young was seeking federal support for transportation.
“I advocated for substantial federal investment in building national energy infrastructure and corridors to transport reserves resource products to tide water,” she said. “I also emphasized the need for streamlined and predictable approval of large resource projects to attract investment from development countries and to ensure Canada’s supply chains remain secure and reliable.”
Of the talks in PEI, Young noted they paved the way to find ways to not only promote Saskatchewan on a greater scale, but “how we can make Canada an energy and minerals superpower.”
“It was refreshing to feel the unity in those discussions, which I’m hopeful will lead to more access for Canadians to reliable, affordable energy and wealth generated by our vast resources,” Young said. “With Saskatchewan’s robust and expanding resource sectors, we are and have been positioning the province to contribute significantly to Canada’s emergence as a global energy superpower.”
Highlighting the importance of mining in the province, Pam Schwann, President of the Saskatchewan Mining Association, broke down some interesting numbers.
“The mining sector continues to be one of Saskatchewan’s pivotal economic drivers, directly employing over 11,000 people with an annual payroll of over $1.7 billion, consistently ranking among the province’s top contributors to GDP and direct government revenues,” she said. “In 2024, Saskatchewan’s mining industry purchased over $3 billion in goods and services from Saskatchewan businesses, including over $900 million from Indigenous-owned businesses. In 2025, Saskatchewan mining companies will make over $7 billion in capital investments with our exploration members contributing over $425 million annually to discover new deposits.”
A tour of Belle Plaine
Young and Schwann were among a group of dignitaries invited to a quick tour of the Mosaic Belle Plaine potash solution mine last week, giving industry leaders the opportunity to highlight some of the triumphs and challenges facing the energy sector in Saskatchewan.
“Potash is one of Saskatchewan’s 27 critical minerals, and we at Mosaic would say it’s the most critical as it is essential to helping the world grow the food it needs,” said Marnel Jones, Director of Government and Public Affairs for The Mosaic Company.
“Our facility here at Belle Plaine has been producing potash for over 60 years. Mosaic’s approximately 500 employees at this site and 2,000 province wide are foundational to the Saskatchewan mining story.”
The first and largest solution mine in the world, the Belle Plaine facility produces nearly three million tonnes of finished potash products annually.
Is mining immune to tariffs?
When pressed for her opinion on what the uncertainty of U.S. tariffs might have in store for the mining industry, Young noted those discussions are best left to the federal government.
“The meetings that we had last week in PEI, we did discuss tariffs a little bit, but for the most part, we were focused on energy and making Canada a superpower,” she said. “I will leave the counter tariffs under discussion to our prime minister and his cabinet as to what they would want moving forward.”
According to Jones, it’s more of a ‘wait and see’ process right now.
“We’ve been advocating for our potash industry on both sides of the border,” she said. “As you know, we have operations both in the U.S. and Canada. With our potash operations here in Canada, we have been watching the trade negotiations closely—as have has everyone—and it’s continuing to be a dynamic situation. So we’re watching to see what happens next. Right now, we’re fortunate that our product is all CUSMA compliant, so we are not experiencing any tariffs, and we’re going to continue to advocate for that to be the case. We don’t believe that any fertilizer product should be tariffed as it’s meant for humanitarian services to grow food, and we’re going to continue to be pushing for that.”
Jones noted that potash prices are stable right now, despite what may be happening at a global level.
“That’s where we like them to be,” she said. “It’s in a stable place, not what we saw back in the period when Ukraine was invaded by Russia. We saw sky high potash prices, and that’s not actually very conducive to the market or to producers in the long term. So the market we have right now, it’s stable. We’re making lots of tonnes, and our customers want it. So we’re in a pretty good spot today.”
Increased costs are one area Schwann is keen to keep her eyes on as tariff threats continue to run hot and cold.
“You have some products that cross over like automobiles, but steel products that might go into the States and come back and can get increased costs from that,” she said. “So if you’ve got large capital projects that are happening, you’re going to see some price escalation, and that may actually stop those projects moving forward. We’re watching it very closely, obviously it’s a concern. We like to see free trade, especially amongst our allies.”
Rail lines wanted
Getting Saskatchewan potash out of the ground and around the world is another major focus.
“We haven’t had any new pipelines introduced in the last 10 years due to the federal regulatory environment that was in place and layered on impositions for most of our industries, but it also means rail capacity,” Young said when asked about what type of future projects she would like to see. “We need to get our products to global markets, and looking at the expansion of our ports—particularly on the West Coast. I think that’s something that needs to be considered at this point in time so that those industries that are producing—such as Mosaic here—have that rail capacity available when they need it in order to get into those ports.”
In order to fast-track projects, Young says the answer is a one-approval process.
“The provinces have the authority to approve many of the things that happen within our province, but I think we need to partner with the federal government to ensure that they aren’t being held up at a second level when they get to that licensing portion under the federal government,” she said. “We’ve already had applications that have been sitting on the books for the last 10 years and just need to be approved to get them moving forward.”
Jones seconded that need for enhanced routes, noting that the first quarter of the fiscal year was especially difficult in terms of transportation.
“We’re here today to talk about the challenges we face with getting our products to market, and that includes rail service and just the fact that Saskatchewan is here and we have a long way to get to tide water,” she said. “What we saw in the first quarter of the year was a really cold winter with a lot of snow and wind, and those are not great things to have for us to be loading rail cars and getting them to Vancouver or other parts of Canada. We’re in the process of recovering, but Q1 was really tough getting our products to market, which is why we continue to advocate for increased funding towards our infrastructure in Canada, because we operate 365 days of the year, and we have to get our products to market.”
The transport issue will only be magnified as potash operations continue to build—a good problem to have seeing more investment in the province, but the SMA also points toward more rail capacity as the answer.
“We’re looking at a new potash mine coming, and that’s 4.5 million tons, potentially going to 8 million tons,” she said. “We need more rail capacity. If we can get oil onto pipelines, that will free up some capacity there, but we also have to address some of the labour disruptions that we have, climate resiliency on some rail lines as well, and also some of the regulatory elements in the rail lines and the port that caused congestion on the rail infrastructure.”
For people like Jones, even seeing conversation taking place between provincial and federal levels of government is a positive sign.
“Our facilities produce millions of tons of potash each year, but our limiting factor is how much product we can get to market,” she said. “To that point, Canadian port and rail infrastructure is crucial for resource companies like ours to reach our customers around the globe. We are pleased and encouraged to hear so much conversation by the federal and provincial governments in support of trade, enabling infrastructure so we can unlock our full potential as an economic critical minerals powerhouse right here in Saskatchewan.
“In Saskatchewan, we’re not lacking ambition, know-how, or the demand for our products, but as a nation we haven’t invested or collectively planned how we can competitively deliver our essential products to the world 365 days a year for international exports. That means getting products from right here in Belle Plaine to our largest, most efficient port in Vancouver to access some of our fastest growing markets. Our provincial government understands what needs to be done for us to earn our place within the country and the world as a mining superpower.”
