Saskatchewan Minute: Issue 129

Saskatchewan Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Saskatchewan politics.

📅 This Week In Saskatchewan: 📅

• The Saskatchewan Institute is holding two Pints and Politics evenings this month, both free to attend and both requiring an RSVP because capacity is limited (see below for links). The Saskatoon event runs on Wednesday from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm at Winston's English Pub on 21st Street East, hosted with Common Sense Saskatoon, and features Jared Fedorchuk, a technology entrepreneur and the co-founder and chief executive of Saskatoon-based Levis Tech, discussing his work with food banks across Canada and the United States. The Regina event follows on September 23rd, from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm at Birmingham's Vodka and Ale House on Star Lite Street, hosted with Common Sense Regina. It features Wayne Morsky, former president and chief executive of the Morsky Group of Companies and a former chair of both the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Regina Exhibition Association Limited, on what governments can learn from business, why public infrastructure projects run over budget, and what good governance actually looks like.
  
  
• Saskatchewan Party MLA Kevin Weedmark faced Opposition demands to produce receipts after two videos surfaced showing him travelling to government announcements by chartered jet. The first, recorded by a staff member on August 27th 2026, follows Weedmark from Moosomin to Lloydminster to Saskatoon to Regina and back, with stops for a restaurant meal and shopping along the way. A second video, dated to April 2025, shows Weedmark taking a private plane to a hospital tour in Saskatoon. NDP MLA Meara Conway wrote to him demanding he disclose what the charter cost, who paid for it, whether taxpayers were billed, and whether the trip was approved in advance, and says the aircraft belonged to a Manitoba company the NDP claims charges more than $6,000 an hour. Weedmark, who represents Moosomin-Montmartre, said in a statement that he chartered the aircraft from a local company at his own personal expense and that no taxpayer dollars were involved.
  
  
• Saskatchewan drivers will pay 3.75% more for basic auto insurance starting June 1st, 2027, after the provincial government directed Saskatchewan Government Insurance to proceed with an increase its own rate review panel declined to endorse. Minister Responsible for SGI Jeremy Harrison announced the decision at a news conference in Saskatoon on September 4th, and confirmed the Government had also formally approved the 3.75% increase that took effect in June of this year. The Saskatchewan Rate Review Panel recommended approval of the 2026 increase in its July report but did not recommend the 2027 hike, instead asking SGI to file a new application backed by a full financial forecast, a capital adequacy analysis, and a capital restoration plan. The panel also recommended a capital margin of at least 6.5%, which SGI officials say would have pushed the total increase to 10.25%, a figure Harrison called too high. SGI puts the average annual cost to vehicle owners at about $39, or $3.25 a month, and says Saskatchewan will still have among the lowest basic rates in Canada. The Crown insurer had not raised rates between 2014 and June of this year, and the Auto Fund has operated at a loss for the past four years. NDP SGI critic Darcy Warrington claims the increase piles on to cost-of-living pressures and says the Government is ignoring what the panel actually recommended.
  
  
• Saskatchewan's 50% levy on American alcohol took effect on September 8th, the same day Canada's reciprocal tariffs came into force. Premier Scott Moe announced the measure in August in response to the 50% tariff the United States placed on Canadian liquor, and it applies to any US-produced alcohol that retailers buy through the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority's online ordering system. Saskatchewan and Alberta are the only provinces that have not pulled American alcohol from shelves outright, and Moe says the Province does not want to limit the public's ability to choose. He says American alcohol sales in Saskatchewan are already down about 40% while sales of Saskatchewan-made products have risen, which he argues sends a stronger message than a government-ordered ban. NDP Leader Carla Beck called the move a "weak and gutless response" to the American attack on Canada's economy. Moe said on September 9th that the latest round of American executive orders would have only a minor impact on the province and that about 94% of Saskatchewan's exports remain tariff-free.
  
  
• The Government of Saskatchewan will give Roadways Literacy Academy, a private school for students with learning disabilities, $403,000 for the 2026-27 school year, an increase of $175,000 over its previous funding. Education Minister Everett Hindley announced the service agreement at the school on September 9th, alongside a new designation that lets Roadways operate as an alternative independent school. The school has run for about 12 years as a specialized private school and tutoring studio for students in Grades 1 to 10, working with children who have dyslexia, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia. Asked why an independent institution received the money rather than the public system, Hindley claimed the investment was meant to strengthen literacy supports and pointed to the choice families have between public, separate, independent, distance learning, and French-language education. He also cited $2 million spent over the previous two budget years on K-3 literacy and a 20% increase in operating funding to school divisions over three years

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