Saskatchewan Minute: Issue 130

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

📅 This Week In Saskatchewan: 📅

• Premier Scott Moe and Bell Canada chief executive Mirko Bibic announced on September 14th that Bell's planned artificial intelligence data centre in the RM of Sherwood, outside Regina, will expand to a total estimated capital investment of more than $50 billion. The project keeps its original 300 megawatts from the provincial grid and adds a phased build-out of up to 900 megawatts that Bell must supply itself under the Government's Bring Your Own Power principle, creating a pathway to 1.2 gigawatts in total. The Government approved the expansion under the data centre framework it released in August, and claims it will create up to 500 permanent jobs in operations and power generation, about 100 management positions, and roughly 3,000 more in areas such as security, logistics and maintenance. Officials say Saskatchewan families and businesses will not pay for the additional power. NDP Leader Carla Beck is calling for a moratorium on hyperscale AI data centres until a proper assessment process is in place.
  
  
• The Saskatchewan Environmental Society went before the Court of Appeal in Saskatoon on September 15th to argue that its challenge to the Government's decision to run SaskPower's coal-fired stations past the federal phase-out deadline of December 31st, 2029 should proceed to a full hearing, after the Court of King's Bench struck the judicial review down in January. The Government told the court that elected officials, not judges, should decide public policy. Costs are central to the group's case: the refurbishment was pegged at $900 million when the decision was announced in June 2025, though some estimates put it at about $2.6 billion. The Saskatchewan Environmental Society says the Government has released neither the economics nor an environmental impact assessment behind its choice, and the society argues a judicial review could force those documents into public view.
  
  
• Health-care workers represented by CUPE Local 5430 have voted 99% in favour of job action, with 13,358 of 13,492 ballots cast supporting a strike mandate, in what the union calls the largest strike vote in Saskatchewan's history. The local represents more than 14,000 clerical, technical, nursing, support, and plant operations staff, and is the province's largest health-care union. Its members have been without a contract since March 31st, 2023 and have gone more than four and a half years without a wage increase. The result was announced on September 15th at a rally outside Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill's constituency office in North Battleford. The sticking point beyond wages is worker mobility: the union says the latest offer from the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations, which bargains on the Government's behalf, would expand contract staffing and let the employer move staff to another region on short notice, and local president Bashir Jalloh notes that more than half his members earn under $50,000 a year. Cockrill counters that any movement of employees would be voluntary and that the employer needs flexibility to keep services running in small and remote communities. Workers remain on the job, the union would still need an essential services agreement before it could legally strike, and the two sides resume bargaining in Regina on Thursday and Friday.
  
  
• Premier Scott Moe says Saskatchewan could build one or possibly two large-scale nuclear reactors in the western part of the province, each producing roughly 1,000 megawatts, or enough to power between 750,000 and 1 million homes. Speaking at the Lloydminster Heavy Oil Show, Moe said the Government is reviving research done more than a decade ago on potential sites along the North Saskatchewan River, and named the Lloydminster area as one of the regions under consideration. He tied the idea to demand from just over $100 billion in private-sector capital he says is already under construction in the province, alongside uranium and mining projects in the north. No cost estimate, timeline or site has been announced, and Moe said only that he hopes for progress within the next several years. The remarks came days after Saskatchewan signed a memorandum of understanding with Alberta and the Northwest Territories covering reactor technology selection, financing, environmental assessment, regulatory pathways, uranium fuel supply, and nuclear waste management, along with new and expanded transmission interties between the three jurisdictions. Moe also credited federal policy changes, including the removal of the Impact Assessment Act and a proposed "one project, one review, one year" approach to approvals, with making major investment more likely.
  
  
• Moody's Investors Service, Morningstar DBRS and S&P Global have each affirmed Saskatchewan's credit rating with a stable outlook, at Aa1, AA (low) and AA respectively. The Government says that leaves the province with the highest credit rating among the provinces once all three agencies are taken together, and points to the second-lowest net-debt-to-GDP ratio in the country. S&P Global described what it views as strong financial management, and cited large private-sector projects advancing in potash, uranium and lithium mining, value-added agriculture, and manufacturing as support for medium-term growth. Saskatchewan's real GDP growth is forecast to rank third-highest among the provinces in 2026 and second-highest in 2027. Deputy Premier and Finance Minister Jim Reiter says the affirmations reflect continued confidence in the economy and argues a strong economy allows the Government to cut taxes while investing in health care, education and community safety. This year's budget marks the second year of a four-year plan to lower provincial income taxes, which the Government puts at roughly $200 million in savings and says leaves a family of four paying no provincial income tax on its first $65,000 of income.

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨
 

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