Sask. will 'reassert our provincial jurisdiction,' premier says in discussion about government's policy paper

This week, the Saskatchewan government released a policy paper that it said outlines its plans to "protect" the province from federal intrusion.

The paper, titled Drawing the Line: Defending Saskatchewan's Economic Autonomy, claims nine federal policies will cost the economy $111 billion by 2035.

An economist questioned the work done by the province's Ministry of Finance, saying it is not credible.

The paper also lists a few options as to how the provincial government aims to increase provincial autonomy within the Constitution.

In a Thursday morning interview with host Stefani Langenegger on CBC's The Morning Edition, Saskatchewan Party Premier Scott Moe discussed the paper and its contents.

This interview has been edited for clarity. 

Listen to Stefani Langenegger's interview with Premier Scott Moe:

Q: What specifically are you challenging the federal government on?

A: What we released earlier this week in North Battleford was a white paper essentially walking through the historical relationship between the province of Saskatchewan and the federal government as we entered Confederation, as we in 1930 signed a Natural Resource Transfer Act and ultimately 1982 the Constitution, up to where we are today — still having that discussion about who ultimately has jurisdiction over the development of natural resources.

Is it the province, or can the federal government weigh in? And we believe it's the province.

What this policy paper does, is we'll lay the foundation for a number of steps that we'll be looking at moving on as we enter the latter half of this year.

Q: Where do Indigenous people factor into this policy?

A: All Saskatchewan people, including Indigenous people, most certainly participate in the Saskatchewan economy.

We have a great story of working together in this province to ensure that everyone is benefiting from a strong and growing economy.

Nowhere is that more true than in the forestry industry. Now in the potash industry, when we see what some of the potash mines' procurement levels are, I think BHP is ensuring that 20 per cent of their procurement is coming from Indigenous-owned organizations. We all know Cameco's story in the mining industry in the north.

And of course the forestry industry — we have more people employed and more Indigenous-owned corporations that are working in that industry as well.

And so a strong and growing economy benefits everyone in this province and we're going to continue to work with all people in the province to ensure that that continues to be the case.

Q: Beyond individuals, premier, what about First Nations governance? What meetings did you hold with First Nations leadership to come up with this policy? 

A: We didn't hold meetings with organizations specific to the policies that we're going to be moving forward on in any way outside about a very, very high level of which we talked about.

What we did is we talked to individuals. We had MLAs across the province talking to folks throughout the summer and the last number of years.

These policies are not all new.… [Sask. Party MLA] Lyle Stewart and [former Saskatchewan Party MLA] Allan Kerpan went out and talked to a specific number of people that had an interest in this area. I myself was out across the province this fall, as were ministers.

Q: Some of those were closed-door meetings, right?

A: Many meetings are closed-door meetings. We meet with CEOs, community-based organizations and other groups often in my office when the door is closed. Many of those were open invitational meetings as well. Many of them were people that were interested in contacting their MLA on various opportunities that they see and challenges they see.

The goal of the discussion that we are having as a government is we believe we're on the cusp of something quite great here in the province. Investment is most certainly interested in Saskatchewan right now in various industries, and we want to ensure that we're doing everything as a provincial government so that we can unlock the potential of Saskatchewan people.

Q: What do you want to be doing to fight climate change?

A: Saskatchewan industries and people, I think, take climate change extremely seriously, to the point of we have some of the strongest records when it comes to reducing emissions in the products that we are producing.

Our potash products per ton of potash emit 50 per cent less greenhouse gases than their competitors around them.

Q: But we're still the highest polluters in the country per capita.

A: But we are also exporting much of that product, which is the cleanest product you can buy in places all around the world.

Here's one of the initiatives that we want to move forward with. We're going to move into the voluntary carbon credit market in a big way to really create a market-based mechanism where a customer or an individual can look at a product — so let's say a ton of potash. It's competitively priced, and actually the Saskatchewan potash is produced with 50 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions than what the potash is in Russia or Belarus. And so I'm going to buy the Saskatchewan ton of potash.

Our view is that we should actually produce more of that potash in Saskatchewan and displace some of that much higher greenhouse gas emissions potash that's available from other areas of the world. And that is how we ultimately can lower our emissions worldwide.

Q: The International Monetary Fund has said that we need progress toward climate change policies that will mitigate that or it will cost us far more in the long run, premier.

A: Saskatchewan industries are doing that. Saskatchewan has an industry that has reduced its methane emissions by 60 per cent relative to 2015. I'm not aware of any other industry in the world that has a record like that, and that's our oil industry.

People aren't aware of the investments that are already being made and what we are raising here today … is there are a number of policies that are in place that may restrict those investments into the future.

That's what the white paper lays out, and really what we're going to see in the months ahead, is a government that is going to make decisions. And all of these decisions will be inside the confines of what the Constitution says.

But we are going to reassert our provincial jurisdiction in that document, so that we can achieve what we know we can achieve in the province. We're on the cusp of something that I'm not sure we've ever experienced before.

Q: What's that?

A: Investment opportunity. We've seen $15 billion announced over the course of the past 10 to 12 months, with additional investment being looked at in the province — in that potash industry, for example, that I just said is the most sustainable in the world, in the agri-food processing industry, in the energy industry, in the rare earth elements industry, where we have the only processing facility that is being constructed in Canada and likely one of very few across North America.

To quote my favourite childhood hockey player, Wayne Gretzky, that's where the puck is going to be — it's in that battery technology and electronics technology. And so we have what the world needs today — the most sustainable food, fuel, and fertilizer that you can access anywhere on Earth.

And are looking to supply what the world will need tomorrow. And that is some of the rare earth elements that, quite frankly, today 70 per cent of them are being produced in mainland China.

Q: The federal government came and made a big announcement and pledged money to rare earth minerals here in Saskatchewan, so how are they getting in your way on any of this? 

A: [In] the rare earth and mineral space, we're going to make another application to the federal government, because we noticed they just pledged … [$222 million] to a Quebec company that is looking to get into this space as well.

And so we are looking at ensuring that our facility will be potentially a net-zero facility, with no effluent that will be emitted from that facility. It will be the greenest facility in the world. And so we'll be reapplying to … the federal fund that the Quebec company qualified for.

We would expect that there would be a parallel investment made to expand the opportunities that we have in rare earth elements here. A stronger Saskatchewan makes for a stronger federation of Canada. And when it comes to investing in our future, a stronger facility like this in Quebec also, I would say, makes for a stronger nation of Canada.

Q: Why do you focus so highly on what the potential costs might be, whereas you could be talking about Ottawa giving Saskatchewan money for rare earth minerals, or helping moms get back to work by subsidizing daycare?

A: We've partnered with them on all of those fronts. We've always said we'll work with the federal government where we can, but we most certainly will have some disagreements with the federal government on a number of policies.

And those disagreements aren't because they're the federal government. Those disagreements are because it's creating uncertainty in our investment environment here in the province.

Q: I covered politics for more than 20 years. And when [former Conservative prime minister] Stephen Harper and [former environment minister] John Baird put out zero emissions on coal plants, the government of Saskatchewan didn't get as mad as when the Liberals do it. There's an element of politics here, surely. 

A: There is a difference between those policies. Coal plants were going to run to their end of life under the previous mandate that was there. Now, they will be gone by 2030.

And under the clean electricity standard, all fossil fuel electrical generation apparently will be gone by 2035 which is a substantial change.

Q: The Conservative government promised us up to $2 billion a year [in equalization payments in 2007], according to [former Conservative] MP Tom Lukiwski. Had we maybe not dropped that lawsuit against the federal government [in 2008], that could still be in play. It feels like there's politics at play here, premier.

A: With respect to the lawsuit, I checked on this actually a number of months ago, and the advice the government received in '07 is that it wouldn't be a successful lawsuit.

Q: Neither was yours on the carbon tax.

A: No, but that wasn't the advice that we ultimately received as we went into that.

Ultimately, what this is about is we're willing to work with the federal government on these policies, because we see Saskatchewan companies that are making the investments that are very real and are showing results, quite frankly.

I mentioned the oil industry, the potash industry, could go on at great lengths with respect to the ag industry, and how Saskatchewan industries will help Canada, not just Saskatchewan, become net zero by 2050.

We'd work with the federal government on these policies. But time and time again, they are imposed and then the goalposts are moved and the goalposts are ultimately changed. And so our $111 billion [analysis in the policy paper] — and there'll be much discussion about whether it's the right number or not — but it may even be higher, because goalposts are changing as we look into the future.

And there are indirect costs that aren't included in this paper as well with respect to, for example, some of the transportation constraints that we have experienced in the ag industry, the potash industry and the forestry industry due to oil going on the rails.

And so there are costs that aren't included in this. And yes, there will be much discussion on these numbers.

But the fact of the matter is ultimately, we have an opportunity in Saskatchewan, and this provincial government is not going to focus on the federal government.

We're going to focus on what we can do as the government for the people of Saskatchewan to yes, address climate change but yes, also provide the world with the opportunity to access some of the most sustainable products that we produce here in Saskatchewan today, as well as into the future.