Saskatchewan needs to increase its autonomy to advance its economic interests, Premier Scott Moe told a town hall in Maple Creek on Friday.
The province’s economy should not suffer because of federal energy and environmental policies, Moe told a crowd of about 50 people.
“We’re going to make sure that we exercise all of our provincial jurisdiction within the boundaries of the Canadian Constitution, from natural resources and other issues,” he said, adding that Saskatchewan could be an “energy powerhouse.”
Moe and Cypress Hills MP Doug Steele answered questions from the crowd in the southwestern Saskatchewan town of Maple Creek on a variety of topics including health, education and the economy.
Moe also said a discussion paper on industry-specific carbon pricing released by the federal Liberal government earlier this week was “problematic.”
Ottawa proposes an industry-specific cap-and-trade system, or modified carbon pricing system, to cap emissions from the oil and gas sector, with the goal of reducing them by nearly 40% by the end of this decade.
Moe criticized this and criticized the federal government’s national fertilizer emissions reduction target of 30% below 2020 levels by 2030.
“And they add to a series of policies that have been problematic from the very beginning of how we’re generating wealth,” the prime minister said.
The premier also discussed provincial autonomy at a July 7 town hall in Davidson with Arm River MP Dana Skoropad. This event, like Friday’s Maple Creek town hall, was open to the public and there was no fee to attend, according to Skoropad’s office.
“We have a duty as the government of Saskatchewan to enhance and encourage every opportunity to achieve what we can achieve in this province,” Moe told Davidson.
But when “other levels of government are putting in place impediments or barriers to allow us to achieve that provincial success, that community success, we’re going to have to do what we can to stop it,” he said.
Closed-door meetings on autonomy
This month, Moe asked Lyle Stewart, an MLA from his Saskatchewan party, and Allan Kerpan, a former Sask. Party MLA and Reform Party MP who has most recently been involved with the Wexit movement, to co-organize closed-door meetings on increased autonomy for Saskatchewan.
Kerpan said he and Moe have been meeting each other for the past several months and he has been asked to “try to gauge the opinion and feelings of the people who live in our province.”
Tom McIntosh, a professor of politics and international studies at the University of Regina, said he’s not sure what public engagement wants to achieve behind closed doors.
“If you only invite people who already agree with you, you’re not really having a conversation or a debate about the merits of the issue,” McIntosh said.
“And I don’t see the public taking anything that comes out of some kind of private, closed-door session as terribly legitimate either.”
Tom McIntosh is Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of Regina. (Richard Agecoutay/CBC)
In an interview earlier this month, Kerpan expressed concerns about energy and environmental policies, specifically pipeline projects.
He also took issue with two federal laws passed in 2019: Bill C-48, which bans tankers carrying more than 12,500 metric tons of oil from docking on British Columbia’s north coast, and the Assessment Act impact assessment, formerly known as Bill C-69, which allows the federal government to consider the effects of new resource projects on issues such as climate change.
Kerpan said all provinces should have “control over their natural resources, which includes bringing them to market.”
Moe has also raised each of the issues mentioned by Kerpan. He has repeatedly said he is not interested in an independent Saskatchewan, but instead wanted Saskatchewan to become a “nation within a nation.”
McIntosh said it’s unclear how much more autonomy Saskatchewan needs.
“Canada is, in fact, one of the most decentralized federations in the world. Our Canadian provinces have far more autonomy and authority than the subunits of almost any federal state you can name,” he said.
McIntosh noted that while the province may not like Ottawa’s carbon tax, the The Supreme Court ruled that it is constitutional despite legal challenges from Saskatchewan, Alberta and Ontario.
Provinces can’t “pick and choose which laws apply to us and which don’t,” McIntosh said. “That’s not how a federation works.”
“Channel our inner Quebec”
Speaking at a North Saskatoon Business Association luncheon titled “Defense Saskatchewan,” Saskatchewan Justice Minister Bronwyn Eyre said federal policies are thwarting economic potential in Saskatchewan and called the federal government “anti-energy” .
“We have to sell ourselves as a ‘nation state’ … for that reason,” said Eyre, who was previously energy and resources minister.
Saskatchewan Justice Minister Bronwyn Eyre, shown in a 2018 file photo, says federal policies are thwarting Saskatchewan’s economic potential. (CBC)
He emphasized the need to export Saskatchewan’s natural resources internationally.
A “wide range of people” responded to a meeting he organized in his constituency a few weeks ago to discuss autonomy, Eyre said, including former Saskatchewan Premier Grant Devine, farmers, ranchers, businessmen and a “well-known liberal lobbyist.” “
“What really came out of the meeting … was that we should channel our inner Quebec,” Eyre said, applauding that province for protecting its provincial constitutional jurisdiction.
CBC News asked Eyre if the government would be willing to take legal action to increase autonomy and what other actions it might take, but the minister did not give a clear answer.
Moe said Friday that legal action is not needed at this time, but warned that “if the federal government moves to a mandatory 30 percent fertilizer reduction, that’s going to be problematic.”