Saskatchewan Minute: Issue 131

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

📅 This Week In Saskatchewan: 📅

• The Standing Committee on Public Accounts will meet on Thursday at 9:00 am, and first on its agenda is the Provincial Auditor's report on how the Ministry of Community Safety supports the mental health of correctional workers. The audit covers about 1,400 workers at Saskatchewan's five adult secure-custody facilities, which held 2,211 inmates in February 2025. In 2024-25, correctional officers used nearly 152,000 hours of sick leave and worked more than 350,000 hours of overtime, which the auditor puts at approximately $30 million. The auditor found the Ministry had set no performance measures or targets for its mental health supports, and had no clear rule on when to offer its critical incident peer-support program after events such as physical attacks or suicides. That program was offered 84 times in 2024-25, but the Ministry did not track those decisions or prepare the reports its own policy requires. The auditor concluded the Ministry's processes were effective overall, but made five recommendations, including analysis of performance measures and mental health injury data and clear expectations for contacting workers on mental health leave.
  
  
• Also at Thursday's meeting of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, at 10:00 am, the Committee will turn to the Provincial Auditor's follow-up on how the Water Security Agency regulates water use. The auditor found 105 licensed water users drew more than their allocation in 2023 or 2024, by a combined total of more than 9,000 cubic decameters, enough to fill about 3,600 Olympic-size swimming pools. Another 34 users with cancelled or expired licences drew almost 7,000 cubic decameters, and the Agency took no compliance steps, such as fines, against any of the 139 users. Of the seven recommendations the auditor made in 2020, which the Committee agreed to in October 2022, five were still only partially implemented as of March 2026. The Committee will also review a separate follow-up on dam safety.
  
  
• US President Donald Trump appeared to reverse course on potash on September 22nd, saying at the United Nations General Assembly that the US will continue buying from Canada, a day after posting that his government was working on a large deal to buy potash from Belarus at substantially lower prices. Premier Scott Moe said the shift was not surprising, arguing the Belarus plan was never realistic because that country ships its potash east. Moe had called the Belarusian product "blood potash", saying its proceeds support Russian aggression in Ukraine. The Saskatchewan Mining Association says Belarus produces about 12 million tonnes a year, mostly committed to China, and that the US consumes about half of Saskatchewan's potash. Canada exported $4.2 billion of potash to the US in 2025, and potash is currently exempt from US tariffs. 
  
  
• The Opposition NDP is calling on the provincial government to provide emergency relief to farmers, after rain in late August and September left Saskatchewan's harvest well behind schedule. The latest provincial crop report puts the harvest at 32% complete, compared with a 10-year average of 63% for this time of year. Opposition agriculture critic Trent Wotherspoon is asking for a temporary 12-cent-per-litre rebate on farm diesel and the removal of a 3-cent-per-litre tax on marked fuel, for a total reduction of 15 cents per litre. The NDP also wants a 15% rebate on fuel used for grain drying, and is asking the Province to press Ottawa for larger AgriStability interim payments and an expanded interest-free advance payments program. Agriculture Minister David Marit said the Province will help farmers who need it, pointing to its existing programs such as crop insurance.
  
  
• Health-care workers represented by CUPE Local 5430 were set to resume contract talks with the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations (SAHO) in Regina on September 24th and 25th, after 99% of members voted in favour of job action. The union says its members have been without a contract since March 31st, 2023, and have gone four and a half years without a wage increase. Local President Bashir Jalloh said he expected an impasse, claiming SAHO has not changed its offer since July 10th, while SAHO says a package it tabled on September 10th contained significant changes. The two sides also dispute a proposal the union says would let the employer move workers on short notice to fill short-term vacancies, which Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill has described as voluntary. Before any walkout, the union would first have to settle essential service levels with the Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board. Jalloh argues the government's wage mandate is behind the stalemate and that Saskatchewan health-care workers would remain the lowest paid in Canada under the current offer, while Cockrill says the government is optimistic a deal can be reached.

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