Saskatchewan Minute: Issue 133

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

📅 This Week In Saskatchewan: 📅

• Mental Health and Addictions Minister Lori Carr says Saskatchewan's involuntary addiction treatment program, which the Government calls compassionate intervention, likely will not be up and running until early 2027. The legislation behind the program passed in the spring of 2026, and at the end of the spring sitting Carr said she hoped it would be operating later in 2026. Carr said the regulations are still being developed and the committee that will decide whether someone is put into treatment is still being formed. The Government is working with ministries and First Nations partners to recruit legal and medical professionals and members of the public for that committee, and Carr stressed the need for Indigenous representation. The first treatment facility will be at Saskatchewan Hospital North Battleford, a secure psychiatric hospital, where Carr says some renovations are needed. The Saskatchewan NDP opposed the legislation when it passed.
  
  
• Trade and Export Development Minister Warren Kaeding is leading a provincial trade mission to India. Kaeding is meeting business leaders and government officials on food security, critical minerals, energy, and sustainability, while Advanced Education Minister Ken Cheveldayoff is meeting post-secondary and research institutions. Both Ministers are to take part in the federal government's Team Canada Trade Mission programming in Mumbai on Wednesday, and representatives of the University of Saskatchewan are also attending. Saskatchewan's exports to India totalled $827 million in 2025, led by potash, lentils, and peas, and the Province says trade with India is up 155% so far this year. The Government credits its India office with boosting exports, and says its last mission, in March, led to an agreement worth $2.6 billion signed by Cameco and India's Department of Atomic Energy.
  
  
• The federal government is providing more than $11.2 million to eight Saskatchewan projects to help businesses deal with the effects of US tariffs. Secretary of State for Rural Development Buckley Belanger announced the funding on October 9th at Northern Nutrients, with the money coming through PrairiesCan's Regional Tariff Response Initiative and Business Scale-up and Productivity program. Four projects will receive about $7.6 million in repayable funding, including $3.1 million for Northern Nutrients and about $2.6 million for M.P.S. Welding. Another four projects will share about $3.6 million in non-repayable funding for expansions, facility upgrades, and other work, with recipients including Three Farmers Foods, Honey Bee Manufacturing, and the Western Canadian Short Line Railway Association. Northern Nutrients CEO Ross Guenther says the funding will help the company triple its sulphur fertilizer capacity to 150,000 metric tons a year. The federal government claims the projects will support more than 147 jobs.
  
  
• Saskatchewan's unemployment rate was 5.4% in September, the second lowest among provinces and below the national average of 6.5%, according to Statistics Canada's latest labour force numbers. The province added 2,400 jobs compared with September 2025, and employment hit a monthly record of 625,000 people. Youth unemployment declined from August to 11.4%, against a national average of 13%. Private-sector employment rose by 21,500, or 6%, year over year, with manufacturing and construction each adding 5,700 jobs and health care and social assistance adding 4,100. Regina's employment was up 5,300, or 3.5%, while Saskatoon's was up 900, or 0.4%. Immigration and Career Training Minister Eric Schmalz says the figures reflect an economy that is "strong and steady".
  
  
• The Saskatchewan NDP is pledging to introduce legislation this fall that would restore direct rent and utility payments for people on Saskatchewan Income Support. In 2019, the Saskatchewan Party government ended the practice of paying clients' rent and utility bills directly to landlords and utilities, leaving clients to pay those bills themselves. Speaking at a Saskatoon tent encampment, NDP MLA April ChiefCalf argued the current policy is contributing to homelessness as more people fall behind on payments, and that direct payment gives landlords greater certainty that rent will be paid. In 2023, the Provincial Auditor found that more than 5,000 income support clients had owed SaskPower or SaskEnergy at least $100 for more than 30 days, and that 228 clients were evicted from rentals in a 10-month period. The Ministry of Social Services says direct payment remains an option for some income support clients and for all Saskatchewan Assured Income for Disability clients, and claims the vast majority of income support clients successfully pay their own rent and utilities. The encampment where ChiefCalf spoke has grown to more than 100 people, and the City of Saskatoon plans to clear it.

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

We're hosting a Pints & Politics event on October 20th featuring Donna Harpauer, who served as Saskatchewan’s Minister of Finance from 2017 to 2024 and Deputy Premier from 2020 to 2024.

First elected in 1999, Harpauer represented her constituents for 25 years and spent 17 consecutive years in cabinet, holding portfolios including Education, Social Services, and Government Relations. Raised on a farm near Guernsey, Saskatchewan, she brings decades of experience in provincial politics and public policy.

The event will take place at Birmingham’s Vodka and Ale House in Regina from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm.

Attendance is free, but RSVPs are required:

🪙 This Week’s Sponsor: 🪙

This week's sponsor is you! We don't have big corporate backers, so if you like what you're reading, please consider making a donation or signing up as a monthly member.

Having said that, if you are a local business and are interested in being a sponsor, send us an email and we'll talk!