Premier Scott Moe has published a letter he sent to Prime Minister Mark Carney outlining 10 policy changes the federal government “must make” in order to reset the relationship between Ottawa and Saskatchewan.
Moe wrote in a Wednesday post on social media that Carney has the ability to quickly move to address the 10 items.
“[That] would clearly signal a new, more positive relationship between Saskatchewan and the federal government than we have had for the past 10 years,” Moe wrote, referencing the strained relationship his provincial government had with prime minister Justin Trudeau.
Moe’s demands include:
Many of the topics were raised by Moe during a press conference after last month’s federal election.
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Moe’s letter was explicit in his insistence the federal government not impose the federal backstop on the industrial carbon tax.
Moe’s government eliminated the provincial output-based performance standards program, which taxed large industrial emitters, at the start of this month.
The letter alludes to a conversation Moe and Carney had on May 1, during which the premier says he raised the 10 policy changes.
Moe is the latest premier to release a wish list of projects and policies he wants to see addressed by the federal government under Carney, whose Liberals won a minority government in the April 28 federal election.
Unlike his counterparts, Moe’s letter does not identify a singular project he wants assistance on. For example, Ontario Premier Doug Ford highlighted a need for federal support on a tunnel under Highway 401.
Moe is scheduled to hold a news conference on Thursday morning to mark the end of the spring legislative session, and it’s expected he’ll have more to add on his list of demands at that time.
On Wednesday, the province’s Official Opposition urged Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to help farmers facing China’s tariffs on canola.
The NDP says the province needs to sign on to the federal AgriStability program, which is meant to protect producers against dramatic increases in costs and changing market conditions.
Daryl Harrison, Saskatchewan’s minister of agriculture, said those efforts are already underway.
“The federal government’s proposed changes to the program haven’t been implemented. Once a federal ag minister has been appointed, negotiations will continue around program enhancements,” Harrison said during question period.
Harrison added that he has a meeting scheduled for Thursday morning with Heath MacDonald, who was named as the new federal agriculture minister on Tuesday.
