REGINA - Premier Scott Moe announced the retaliatory measures Saskatchewan is taking against President Donald Trump’s tariffs, and liquor is a prime target.
At a news conference Wednesday afternoon at the legislature, Moe announced that effective immediately, Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority will “stop purchasing U.S. produced alcohol and will stop selling any U.S. alcohol that we currently have in stock to any of the private retailers that are in the province.”
Moe also announced that goods and services that are procured by Government of Saskatchewan Ministries as well as Crown Corporations are “going to make every effort to prioritize Canadian suppliers.” As well, there will be a temporary pause placed on capital projects that are not yet in motion to “reassess how they are moving through the Sask Builds procedure.”
For those projects now 小蓝视频 constructed, Moe said a call and ask has gone out to contractors involved “to report back with respect to what level of American content they have in that construction, and how they are going to drive that number down and drive the Canadian content up.
“The goal here is for us to greatly lower or even get to zero with respect to the U.S. procurement and the capital projects that we have.”
Moe did say there were a number of exceptions for what he called “essential products.” As well Moe said they are also encouraging “school divisions, municipalities, post-secondary institutes to adopt similar procurement policies as they go through the next number of days.”
Moe added that “our most significant trading partner has and when the dust settles will still be the United States of America. Our most significant ally has and will continue to be when the dust settles our most significant ally in the world.
That's not to say that our relationship isn't changing before our very eyes. But we do export as the province of Saskatchewan over 55 per cent, while $29 billion of our exports do go to the United States. Well 80% of our imports also come from the United States.
We very much as a government have committed not only to deepening the trade relationship with the United States of America, but diversifying our trade relationship with other countries around the world.”
The measures announced by Moe are not much different from those announced by other provinces in the wake of President Trump’s imposition of 25 per cent tariffs on Canada.
But the Moe government has been under fire over the last 24 hours from the Opposition for 小蓝视频 the last of the provinces to announce their measures. At a media available later Wednesday afternoon Opposition Leader Carla Beck described Moe's actions as a "day late and a dollar short," and characterized it as "weak leadership."
When asked about the delay, Moe pointed to the fluid situation, saying there was “a lot that's still in motion yesterday.”
“And I think you could say welcome to at least the next number of months and maybe the next number of years as things change before our very eyes. Today was the day for, in my opinion, the Prime Minister to lay out what the national plan was, of which we had highly discussed and then discussed on numerous occasions in our weekly calls, and even more frequent at times.”
He also pointed to a “somewhat coordinated response among the provinces. Not entirely coordinated, but somewhat coordinated among the provinces.”
He added the “fact that we're doing this today versus yesterday, I think, is of little significance.”
Moe said this is “going to be a changing environment day by day by day. And we've seen changes even today as it looks like the American auto manufacturers have made, to some degree, a breakthrough in the President understanding the true impact of the tariffs on that industry.”
Premier Moe was also asked about calls for Saskatchewan to potentially cut off exports such as potash to the USA. This was in response to suggestions from Ontario Premier Doug Ford that Saskatchewan might cut off potash or uranium to the USA, similar to Ford’s actions on electricity
“It would be very difficult, I think, to cut off the flow of a product completely,” Moe said. He pointed out that what Premier Ford put forward with respect to electricity is to “not even cut that off but to actually add a surcharge to it”
“And so adding a surcharge to a product that the government doesn't own would be a tariff, which would be the federal government's purview or responsibility. Again, I would point to the fact that if you were to shut down production going to the U.S., and let's use Potash as an example, that would result in immediate job loss in Saskatchewan. Immediate job loss in Saskatchewan. That's not our goal. Our goal is to open up markets not only in the U.S. but around the world.”
Moe was also asked about his own conversation with Premier Ford about the idea of restricting or putting a tax on potash.
“That conversation would be pretty short,” Moe said, adding, “I'm not going to put Saskatchewan people at work in potash mines.”
As for the pause on capital, Premier Moe said that was including the Crowns.
“Yes, we are. Currently, as I said, all new significant capital expenditures are just currently on pause for a very brief, temporary period of time, and we don't know if these tariffs will be on another three or four days or three or four months, to look at where they are in the procurement process and where they're headed.”
Regarding the federal tariffs, Premier Moe said his government supported the “very targeted $155 billion of retaliatory tariffs that the federal government is moving forward on.
“Begrudgingly, I would say as well, because all tariffs are going to have an impact on you and I, and every other family that lives in North America. The tariffs that President Trump is putting on will largely have an impact on American families.
The retaliatory tariffs, yes, will have an impact on American businesses, but will largely have an impact on Canadian families as well. “
Finance Minister Jim Reiter was also at the podium and he laid out the grim impacts of tariffs on the Saskatchewan economy if they took effect in full.
Reiter said “the last estimate that they provided to me is an effect to the GDP would be $4.9 billion, which is about 5.8 per cent, so very significant on the GDP side. And overall would reduce revenue to the province by up to $1.4 billion.
“Now, hopefully, that would be a worst-case scenario. That would be the tariffs as they were announced, 25 (per cent) and 10 (per cent, on energy), and annualized. So, obviously, we're hoping it would be significantly better than that. As the Premier said, things are changing literally by the hour, so we're hopeful cooler heads will prevail.”
When Premier Moe was asked what the off-ramp was to the tariffs and whether it would be through renegotiation of the USMCA, Moe said the following:
"The off-ramp, as I see it, is not a renegotiation of USMCA, but the planned review of USMCA. Things have changed even since the signing of that deal. For example, various auto parts, or maybe even agricultural equipment parts that are 小蓝视频 used in those implements and those vehicles today, weren't 小蓝视频 used even five or six years ago when USMCA came into force. So, there is a planned review of that program, and I would say that the tariffs that we have today, which are the fentanyl border security tariffs; the tariffs that are 小蓝视频 talked about on the 12th of March, which are the aluminum-steel tariffs; and the third set would be the reciprocal tariffs.
"...We urge the federal government to open the door to entering that USMCA review earlier, sooner rather than later, because we think once that agreement can be made, that we would be able to find our way through this daily barrage of what's going to experience a tariff next."
