Dear Premier Moe,

cc: Honourable Donna Harpauer, Honourable Don McMorris

Saskatchewan has worked hard over the past decade to build our province’s economy to become one of Canada’s most desirable place to invest and do business. 

The vision for Saskatchewan, as set out in the Saskatchewan Plan for Growth, is bold and sets ambitious targets. Increasing investment to $16 billion annually, creating 100,000 new jobs, making Saskatchewan a world-leader in agri-food, and growing oil production by 25 per cent is how we will continue growing a strong Saskatchewan. 

But we’re losing our competitive edge. We need to take action to ensure our ambitions become Saskatchewan’s reality. 

As jurisdictions move towards focusing on their economic recovery, the competition to attract the capital needed to reach the province’s ambitions will be intense. And right now, the actions of many rural municipalities (RM’s) are eroding Saskatchewan’s competitiveness and putting that investment at risk. 

Since 2014 – in RM’s with resources – employment in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas has dropped nearly 30 per cent while capital investment has dropped nearly 60 per cent. Yet during the same period (2014-2020) taxes on those industries has increased by 16 per cent. 

In addition, the financial transparency in many of the RM’s is among the worst in Canada – and this isn’t a new issue. The provincial government has been aware of the need for increased transparency in municipalities for years as you’ve previously committed to implementing a system to publicly post municipal financial data like the one already available in Alberta. 

We need to act now to fix these issues to ensure the investment Saskatchewan needs doesn’t flee to neighboring jurisdictions. We can no longer allow our province’s growth to be undermined by some municipalities who are consistently increasing fees and other costs on Saskatchewan job creators.

It’s time for the province to stand for a strong and growing Saskatchewan and immediately implement increased financial transparency, and an equitable property tax framework, to increase Saskatchewan competitiveness and help us reach the province’s 2030 ambitions. 

I look forward to your response.