Sask. Premier Scott Moe critical after Trudeau leaves him off invite list

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Saskatoon Monday during a stop on what he describes as an "A to Z" tour of Canada's battery supply chain, but Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe says he wasn't invited.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau remained diplomatic when asked why he didn’t invite Scott Moe to his tour Vital Metals’ rare earth facility.

“We’ve had lots of great opportunities to make announcements with Premier Moe over the years,” said Trudeau. “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 workers are seeing in cleaner jobs.”

Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark joined Trudeau on the tour, meeting workers at the facility which processes Candian-mined ore that can be used to make electric vehicle batteries and permanent magnets, but Saskatchewan’s Premier was conspicuously absent.

Moe took to Twitter to complain about his lack of an invite on Monday morning.

“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," Moe tweeted.

Moe told CTV News in the legislature that afternoon that he had previously been in touch with Trudeau about touring Saskatoon's rare earth facilities.

"I had reached out previously, and invited the Prime Minister to come to the Saskatchewan Research Council facility some time ago and we were in the process of putting that together when there was a global event that occurred and didn’t allow that to happen."

When asked if he tried to get in touch with Trudeau on Monday following the visit, he said no.

“Why would I," he said.

His office, however, did reach out, and there was an apology provided to his staff, he said.

Moe has recently cast himself in opposition to Trudeau’s government by touting the province's sovereignty over natural resources through the Saskatchewan First Act.

GREEN ENERGY TOUR

During his visit, Trudeau emphasized the need For Canada to control its entire green technology supply chain in his statement to the press at the rare earth element processing facility.

In September, the federal government announced an agreement to lend the Australian-based company $5 million interest-free to install equipment at the Saskatoon plant and start processing raw ore into rare earth carbonate — a pre-cursor with a wide variety of industrial uses.

Rare earth metals are used in products like electric cars, wind turbines, phones, high-efficiency air conditioners, high-efficiency elevators and other electric products.

In his speech at the plant, Trudeau emphasized the need to develop reliable supply chains in the face of global instability.

“The world is changing,” he said.

“We’re not interested in just shipping ore overseas to be processed and value-added and turned into batteries. As this plant gets up and running, we’re hoping to see more and more of the end product from this plant land in a manufacturing plant somewhere else in this country that’s assembling batteries, and those batteries get put into a car that’s sold in Canada.”

Until now, the rare earth elements were produced predominantly by China, “a somewhat challenging partner at the best of times,” he said.

Trudeau touted the company’s approach as a model for the world.

“What we’re seeing here is rare earth elements mined with an Indigenous partnership in the Northwest Territories, shipped down here to Vital Metals in Saskatoon, where the processing and the value is added,” he said.

“These are things that Canada has not just the raw materials for, but the extraordinary workers that are going to be able to deliver it.”

The federal government is also making a similar $2.5 million loan to the Saskatchewan Research Council for its rare earth processing facility.