Saskatchewan Premier Says Unaware of Trudeau Visit to His Province

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe speaks during a media event at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon on June 28, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Liam Richards)

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said on Jan. 16 he was disappointed by not having been notified that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would be visiting a Saskatoon rare earth elements processing plant on the same day to promote Canada’s role in that field.

Moe called the visit “disappointing, but not surprising” in a statement.

“It’s disappointing because this is an area that the provincial and federal governments see eye to eye on, yet we were not aware of the Prime Minister’s visit.”

The premier said the visit was not surprising because he had travelled to the U.S. last month to discuss opportunities in his province and noted it was Trudeau’s first visit since coming back from the North American Leaders Summit in Mexico.

There, Trudeau reportedly discussed with U.S. President Joe Biden the issue of strengthening supply chains in the fields of critical minerals and semiconductors.

The prime minister was asked why he had not told the province about his visit or extended an invitation and said it was related to the provincial government’s stance towards federal climate policies.

“We’ve had lots of great opportunities to make announcements with Premier Moe over the years, the government of Saskatchewan is an important partner on many different issues,” he said.

“At the same time, we also know there’s work to be done on encouraging the government of Saskatchewan to see the opportunities that companies and indeed workers are seeing in cleaner jobs, in the opportunities for cleaner energy projects, these are things that we’re going to continue to work on.”

Prairies provinces have become more assertive lately towards Ottawa, with Alberta passing its Sovereignty Act and Saskatchewan’s government introducing the Saskatchewan First Act.

Both could be used in contentious issues with the federal government surrounding natural resources.

Trudeau made the comments during his tour of the Vital Metals facility in Saskatoon, which boasts being Canada’s first rare earth elements mining company.

The extraction plant began commissioning last June and is processing resources mined at the Nechalaco project in the Northwest Territories.

Trudeau said world events like increased trade protectionism in the U.S., the pandemic, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have shown the need to increase supply chain resiliency.

“That’s why the world is looking to Canada, because Canada has incredible amounts of the critical minerals and the rare earth elements that the world needs,” he said.

The federal government announced its new critical minerals strategy in December, which aims in part to speed up the approval process for mining projects.