Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe had around 40 meetings over two days when he was in the United States to promote the province’s energy and mining sectors.
Moe visited New York to talk about finance and investment and in Washington the conversations were focused on energy security in North America.
He pitched Saskatchewan as a reliable supplier of uranium, rare earth minerals and oil during a time when economies are reeling from high fuel prices and eyeing to pivot towards renewable sources of energy.
“We are seeing the vulnerabilities in the European Union right now when they have not been focused on providing that energy security to other nations as a collection. We most certainly do not want to find ourselves in that position here in Canada, the U.S. and across North America,” Moe said at a press conference at the airport in Saskatoon on Friday.
Moe says the focus right now is to keep advocating on removing impediments to getting Saskatchewan oil south of the border. He added that he also wants to remove impediments that might exist in providing uranium as energy security across the border.
“Long-term agreements most certainly would be preferable and then really looking at the future with the the access to rare earth elements across North America and what role Saskatchewan can play in it,” he said.
Moe said that there are restrictions in terms of transportation, citing the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline as a hurdle in providing true energy security to North Americans.
However, he added that there are still some energy assets that can easily be tapped in order to increase oil production in Saskatchewan and provide that to the U.S.
Moe hinted at industries such as the province’s fertilizer and food sectors, which are highly integrated, and successful North American supply chains, which he said could be used as a blueprint for the oil industry.
He said that Saskatchewan provides great food security across North America.
“We we use red tractors that are built in Fargo, North Dakota, we bring those to Saskatchewan to grow our crops. We bring green combines from East Moline into Saskatoon to harvest our crops. We then turn around and we send our our crop products down to the U.S.,” Moe said.
“We provide that food security across Canada, across North America, and we do a substantial effort in providing that food security around the world. And we should do the very same when it comes to our energy security today, in the years ahead and into the decades ahead.
“We need to sit down and formalize some of the discussions about how we can access more carbon for our enhanced oil recovery fields, thereby provide that energy, which is among the most sustainable and low carbon energy available in the world,” he said.
The premier was also asked about inflation and if there is any relief coming to Saskatchewan residents, to which he said inflation is largely caused by fuel costs, saying the federal government should remove the carbon tax.
“After the first quarter, if natural resource prices remain high the provincial government will consider giving back,” Moe said.
“We would look for ways to return that, potentially through debt reduction, maybe through some dollars flowing to Saskatchewan people but most certainly looking at flowing it through all Saskatchewan people.”
Moe says the government will look at first quarter budget results in July or August.
Comments