Tariffs, trade and Saskatchewan’s economic future

Prabha, thank you so much for taking our call.

Thank you for having me, Evan.

It's a pleasure to be back.

So you just took a trip to Ottawa.

I know you've done these sorts of missions before.

Did you go out there with one or two or a group of things in mind that you were hoping to accomplish?

Well, Evan, as you are aware, I mean, we have what's called an annual mission to Ottawa.

We take a member delegation of private sector companies.

And I think we've done this for about three times, three years in a row.

This year was a little unique because we collaborated with the government of Saskatchewan on this mission.

So we had Minister Warren Keating, the Minister for Trade and Export, join us.

We had a delegation of 13 businesses and essentially we had agriculture, mining, energy and defense join us.

So these were businesses.

representing those sectors that are drivers of economy.

We have several messages, Evan.

One, we wanted to make sure that Ottawa understood the policies and regulations that were critical for Saskatchewan businesses to advance our interests and also to advance our province as a whole.

So a lot of our messages, a lot of our discussions were around one long-term policy regulatory certainty and efficiency.

And as you're aware, Bill C-39 introduces a new aspect of the Federal Impact Assessment Act, which we've been calling for some changes to that act for a very long time because approvals were taking some time, seven and 10 years.

This particular bill now introduces a one project, one review, one year timeline.

And so we wanted to discuss that.

We also discussed the importance of stable supply chains and reliable access to markets.

We talked about how we need to focus on restoring Canada's reputation as a reliable trading partner.

And this is to do with labor disruptions.

And, you know, we've had 4.3 million workers person days lost in the last while due to labor disruptions, 36% of that in transportation, and about 60 work stoppages over the last two years.

So the Bill C-39 allows for the provision of a special mediator, and we welcome that and wanted to discuss how we can further enhance Canada's reputation as a reliable trading partner.

Prabha, thank you so much for taking our call.

Thank you for having me, Evan.

It's a pleasure to be back.

So you just took a trip to Ottawa.

I know you've done these sorts of missions before.

Did you go out there with one or two or a group of things in mind that you were hoping to accomplish?

Well, Evan, as you are aware, I mean, we have what's called an annual mission to Ottawa.

We take a member delegation of private sector companies.

And I think we've done this for about three times, three years in a row.

This year was a little unique because we collaborated with the government of Saskatchewan on this mission.

So we had Minister Warren Keating, the Minister for Trade and Export, join us.

We had a delegation of 13 businesses and essentially we had agriculture, mining, energy and defense join us.

So these were businesses.

representing those sectors that are drivers of economy.

We have several messages, Evan.

One, we wanted to make sure that Ottawa understood the policies and regulations that were critical for Saskatchewan businesses to advance our interests and also to advance our province as a whole.

So a lot of our messages, a lot of our discussions were around one long-term policy regulatory certainty and efficiency.

And as you're aware, Bill C-39 introduces a new aspect of the Federal Impact Assessment Act, which we've been calling for some changes to that act for a very long time because approvals were taking some time, seven and 10 years.

This particular bill now introduces a one project, one review, one year timeline.

And so we wanted to discuss that.

We also discussed the importance of stable supply chains and reliable access to markets.

We talked about how we need to focus on restoring Canada's reputation as a reliable trading partner.

And this is to do with labor disruptions.

And, you know, we've had 4.3 million workers person days lost in the last while due to labor disruptions, 36% of that in transportation, and about 60 work stoppages over the last two years.

So the Bill C-39 allows for the provision of a special mediator, and we welcome that and wanted to discuss how we can further enhance Canada's reputation as a reliable trading partner.