by Greg Klein | October 26, 2020
Press time results (numbers at dissolution in parentheses)
- Saskatchewan Party: 46 seats (46)
- New Democratic Party: 15 seats (13)
- Vacant: 0 seats (2)
Adding another term to its 13 years in office so far, Canada’s most firmly entrenched provincial Party cruised back to power on October 26. With mail-in ballot counts as much as 12 days away, the Saskatchewan Party won a projected 46 seats. But that provisional number falls below the party’s 2016 tally of 51 seats.
Rival New Democrats accounted for the other five. By-elections had already bumped the NDP’s 2016 numbers from 10 to 13 at dissolution.
Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party vowed to support
resource industries and encourage critical minerals
supply chains. (Photo: Saskatchewan Party)
Returning premier Scott Moe has led the Saskatchewan Party since February 2018, following the retirement of former premier Brad Wall. Moe, who grew up on a farm and holds a BSc in agriculture, has followed his party’s emphasis on economic development through resource industries.
Much of his party’s platform followed the Saskatchewan Growth Plan announced last November. The autumn campaign called for expansions in agriculture, meat processing and forestry, along with a 25% increase in oil production to 600,000 barrels per day, increased uranium sales to $2 billion a year, and increased potash sales to $9 billion per year.
Saskatchewan leads the world for potash production and, with the world’s highest-grade deposits, ranks second for global uranium production.
The Growth Plan also calls for the province to become a consumer of its own uranium by introducing small modular nuclear reactors to its electricity mix.
In a time of heightened concern about critical minerals and their supply chains, Saskatchewan plans to put a commercial rare earths processing and separation facility into operation by 2022. The Saskatchewan Research Council, a Crown corporation, also has studies underway to extract lithium from the province’s brines, and from oil and gas wastewater.
The incumbents responded to opposition criticism of spending cuts by claiming that the NDP couldn’t deliver $4 billion of its spending promises without raising taxes. But in 2017 the SP under then-premier Wall boosted the PST from 5% to 6%.
Among the goals of NDP leader Ryan Meili, a family physician who’s led the party since 2018, were a $15 minimum wage, 50% emissions-free electricity by 2030 rising to 100% by 2050, and making the province a leader in geothermal energy.
Read more about the Saskatchewan Research Council.
