In new plan, Sask. government says it will fight 'federal intrusions'

The Saskatchewan Party is ready for a fight, and it has the policy paper to prove it.

Premier Scott Moe released a policy paper Tuesday codifying the government’s combative stance against what it sees as federal intrusion into provincial jurisdiction over the development of oil and gas, food and fertilizer.

The policy paper, titled “Drawing the Line: Defending Saskatchewan’s Economic Autonomy,” outlines a few potential tactics the provincial government is considering, including a more autonomous immigration policy, developing a carbon credit market, and taking legal action against the federal government over the carbon tax and emissions targets.

Federal climate change policies will cost the province an estimated $111 billion between 2023 and 2035, according to a provincial government press release.

“This cannot continue,” said Moe.

“We cannot allow continued federal intrusion into our exclusive constitutional right to develop our natural resources and grow our economy.”

Federal policies that were purportedly created to protect the environment will effectively hobble Saskatchewan’s economy, says the policy paper.

“While the cut and cap policy focuses on emissions as opposed to the resource itself, the causal effect puts into question the control and jurisdictional territory over natural resource production and development,” the paper says.

The Canadian constitution gives provinces the sole right to make laws in relation to its natural resources, although there is a provision in the constitution that says where there is a conflict between the authority of parliament and the authority of the legislature, parliament prevails.

The province will develop a carbon credit market and prepare to take "legal actions legislative or otherwise, to maintain control of electricity, fertilizer emission/use targets and oil and gas emissions/production."

Moe said the carbon credit market would allow Saskatchewan companies to "monetize some of the investments in sustainability that they have already made."

The province is also seeking more control over immigration policy.

The federal ministers Steven Guilbeault and Jonathan Wilkinson, in charge of the environment and natural resources portfolios, said in an email to CTV News Saskatoon that Moe is taking money out of people's pockets by scrapping the carbon tax.

"This Friday, families in Saskatchewan will receive their next Climate Action Incentive payment - worth $275.25 for a family of four," the statement said.

"Scrapping a program which puts money directly into people's pockets does not make life better for Saskatchewanians. Nor does spending taxpayer dollars to ask the Supreme Court to revisit a decision it made only last year."

In an interview with CTV today, NDP health care critic Vicki Mowat said the Sask. Party is using this campaign to distract from its "very serious" failures in areas like rural health care.

"Instead of looking at some of these very serious concerns about access to health care in rural and remote Saskatchewan, they're looking toward the federal government. Instead of taking responsibility for the health care that they have been providing for the past 15 years in this province, they are pointing fingers elsewhere," she said.