Premier Scott Moe gave a sneak peek of what will be coming out of Wednesday’s throne speech on Monday afternoon in Saskatoon.
“You are going to see a focus on ensuring that this province can really unlock the potential that we know we have here,” he said to the crowd in attendance at the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
“We're seeing investment pour into Saskatchewan in many number of industries and we're appreciative that that does create jobs, and we want to ensure that we as a province are fulfilling our rights that we have within the constitution to develop the natural resources that we are so blessed with in Saskatchewan.”
Moe says Saskatchewan has the lowest unemployment rate and fastest growing economy of any province in Canada, and he would like to see more people immigrating to fill jobs.
He says Saskatchewan has an allocation for approximately 6,000 provincially prioritized immigrants to come into the province, and would like increased selection control on immigration.
“What we've asked is to increase that total allocation to 13,000 and make them all provincial, go through the provincial selection process,” he said.
“This is very similar to what's happening in Quebec already, with the Canada-Quebec accord that was signed a number of years ago, and we've asked for a similar agreement, the Canada-Saskatchewan accord.”
Moe also spoke about the “white paper,” a 24-page document called Drawing the Line: Defending Saskatchewan’s Economic Autonomy, which says federal climate policies will cost Saskatchewan $111-billion from 2023 to 2035, and impinge on Saskatchewan’s ability to provide the world with resources.
“There's been some comments with respect to the numbers and they maybe should be lower, they should be higher. The fact of the matter is, they're the only numbers that are there,” he said, adding that prices on federal carbon tax policies continue to rise.
“We've provided them through the Ministry of Finance, and I would put forward that they may be low. What we're seeing with the federal government over time is really a moving of the goalposts.”
During his speech, Moe condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine while also criticizing the European Union’s energy policies, saying it didn’t have a strong back-up plan after putting its entire faith in renewable power technologies that have severe limitations.
“The consequences of a lack of energy security and now that we are seeing a Russian invasion, we are seeing that energy not being as sustainably supplied as they once would have expected,” he said.
“If you want not only sustainable product and you want to have a sustainable supply chain, Saskatchewan is your place.”
Moe compared those policy decisions to those being discussed in Canada, like caps on emissions and oil and gas production and a mandated reduction in fertilizer use.
“We are at the very front end of heading down the very same path that we saw the European Union heading down a number of years ago,” he said.
“If we're to do that, why would we expect a result that would be any different.”
