A conference room at the Days Inn was jam packed for the Minister's visit. (Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Local economy

Sask. Finance Minister meets with Prince Albert’s business community

Mar 28, 2025 | 5:00 PM

The carbon tax, tariffs, and finding people to fill job vacancies were among the key talking points on Friday, when Saskatchewan’s Finance Minister met with Prince Albert’s business community.

Jim Reiter was the special guest during the Prince Albert and District Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Days Inn.

While originally scheduled to appear in person, he appeared instead by live stream as weather and road conditions made it unsafe to travel from Regina.

After discussing the highlights of the provincial budget, Reiter took questions from people in the packed room. Chamber President Patty Hughes was the first to step up to the microphone and after praising the government for keeping the small business tax at one-per-cent, inquired about another small and medium enterprise tax credit that affects businesses in manufacturing as well as the beverage industry.

“You’re going see it passed into law during the spring sitting of the legislature,” Reiter explained. “We’re pretty excited about that.”

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Noting the tax credit is a result of advocacy work done by the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce, Reiter acknowledged the government is the exact opposite of an expert in business.

“It’s you folks who know what will work and what you need and I feel it’s our job to listen and try to implement what we can,” he said.

Patty Hughes listens to the finance minister. (Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

Another question put forward by Hughes was in respect to a shortage of skilled workers, and a federal grant that disappeared.

Reiter explained it wasn’t just that grant, over $17 million in federal funding was cut last year and resulted in a number of immigration and careers training programs that ended up on the chopping block.

Stating prior to the federal changes, Reiter said the province had 7,200 nominee positions it could fill, which includes nurses and doctor recruitment from overseas. There is now 3,600 and three quarters have to be filled by temporary residents and not new recruitments from outside the country.

In response, Reiter said the government has placed importance on health care and agriculture. The remaining 75-per-cent is up to the other sectors but it has to be temporary residents.

“We thinks it’s going to be very difficult to accomodate and we think it’s gonna cause some strain on some businesses but we just don’t know other way to deal with that,”” Reiter said, adding though the government would be open to feedback from the business community with respect alternative ways to target.

This pleased Hughes, who spoke to paNOW after the meeting.

“I was really happy to hear that from him and we’ll definitely be making sure that we’re having those conversations with them,” she said.

Duane Hayunga has a question about the carbon tax. (Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

On Wednesday, Premier Scott Moe announced the province was getting rid of its industrial carbon tax rate, calling Saskatchewan the first fully carbon tax-free province in Canada.

On Friday, one of the questions posed by someone in the audience was what the government was doing with respect to the money collected by the province, what green projects may be getting attention, and how that could meet federal guidelines.

Noting industry had asked the province to step into that position, Reiter cited increasing work on wind generation.

“We’re still gonna have capital decisions to make, but essentially the whole point of the announcement yesterday was to to get rid of the tax that in our view is just a tax on people, hurts economic development and does absolutely nothing for the environment.”

One critique of the province’s budget was a lack of contingency fund to deal with the tariffs. During his remarks on Friday, the finance minister also touched on the tariffs and referred to unprecedented times. Thats’s why he explained having a balanced budget with a small surplus was deemed as the best strategy going forward

“So we’re hopeful cooler heads will prevail and we can work our way through this thing,” he said. “But if it doesn’t, we felt the best way to deal with that is and weather that tariff storm is to be in a strong fiscal position.”

Among the politicians in the room was Sask Rivers MLA Eric Schmalz who also has a farming background. He noted alongside the tariffs that are being threatened by the current administration in the United States, the big one for the province right now is the 100 per cent canola tariff coming out of China.

“You know, the federal government put a 100 percent tariff on an electric vehicles market that doesn’t exist, you know, in this country – preemptively – and it’s poisoned the well for us as far as trade into China with our with our canola producers. I mean, particularly in canola meal and and canola seed.”

nigel.maxwell@pattisonmedia.com

On Blue Sky: @nigelmaxwell.bsky.social