Sask. Premier Scott Moe shares preview of upcoming trade mission to Europe

A Saskatchewan delegation will be travelling “across the pond” next week in an effort to expand trade and export partnerships for the province.

On Tuesday, Premier Scott Moe joined The Evan Bray Show to discuss the upcoming trade mission to eastern Europe, France and Belgium, which will include a visit to the world’s largest defence trade show.

Read more:

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• Sask. creates team for feedback ahead of CUSMA negotiations

Listen to the full interview with Moe, or read the transcript below:

The following questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.

EVAN BRAY: Just announced, a pretty exciting and important trade mission for our province, premier. Talk about where you’re headed.

PREMIER SCOTT MOE: We spend some time in Eastern Europe, you know, Czechia as well as Poland. And somewhat connected, but not in eastern Europe, is Belgium – connected because it is a port city, and it is an opportunity for us to provide some food and energy security to that eastern European area through that port in Belgium, with potash and agricultural products and increasing our exports there. But also on the energy security front, it’s all things nuclear in eastern Europe as they look for a more sustainable supply than maybe what they’ve traditionally had in a Russian supply, and no better place to look than Saskatchewan for one, the fuel, the uranium, and two, the Saskatchewan-based technology that we have through Cameco, that’s based right out of Saskatoon. So that is part of the mission that we’re on. And then we’ll be off to Paris for the largest defense trade show on Earth. Over 100,000 people will be coming together. When you think of the industries that are leading globally in the innovation and technology, providing that those manufactured goods to our mining and oil and gas sector, it’s a very small step for them to participate in the Canadian investment in defense spending, and this would create those partnerships globally through attending that trade show, which is called the Eurosatory in Paris, France. So we’ll be off to France at some point next week as well, supporting a new industry or an expansion of an existing industry to every degree that we can.

Who’s part of your delegation?

MOE: STEP, the Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership, and a number of their partners, and I expect a number of manufacturing companies out of not just Saskatoon and Regina, but across the province, that are looking to deepen their their connections with military defense contractors from around the world, and even from those in Canada, because we will be part of the Canadian pavilion at that defense show. Obviously, our significant potash and uranium companies, Cameco and Nutrien, will be part of this as well, but it is interesting. Food and energy security are often things that we, all too often in the Western world or in Canada, take for granted. They’re not taking that for granted in eastern Europe right now due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the geopolitical environment that they are living under there. This is an opportunity for us to deepen some trade with existing partners and to expand to a few other European countries as well.

What will success look like? Will it be some signed contracts? I think about your recent trip to India where a huge uranium deal was signed. Is that what you’re hoping what you’ll come back with?

MOE: Ideally, I think success would look like at least some intentional documents. All signed contracts start with intentional documents and, in India, we started working on that in 2018, actually – that uranium agreement that Cameco signed with the country of India. We do have relationships, whether it be through Cameco, Nutrien and other Saskatchewan-based producers in that eastern-Europe space. And what success would look like would be any intentional documents, whether they be memorandums of understanding or actually deliberate intents to move forward and tightening our trade relationship between any of those countries and some Saskatchewan companies, for us to diversify our existing exports, but also for us to deepen that trade relationship in those eastern European countries. On the defense side, I think this is a new frontier for us. Not entirely new, but definitely an opportunity for expansion when we see the investment that’s going to flow in the Canadian defense spending over the next number of years. No better way for Canadian and Saskatchewan companies that already have that expertise to partake in that as well.

Let’s talk about the defense spending part of this, because I think there are lots of people whose attention has been piqued with some of the enhanced defense spending that this country will be doing. What, in Saskatchewan, do we have to offer the defense sector – both within our country and potentially on this trade mission – that you’re headed on?

MOE: I think a whole lot. There’s really two levels of opportunities to participate in this. As an actual contractor of defense spending – of which we do have at least one here in the province – but then to be a subcontractor in the construction and investment of some pretty specialized equipment. We have Calian, just adjacent to the University of Saskatchewan here, that is a contractor in defense spending across Canada and around the world. We have many subcontractors that help a general contractor like that, or a direct contractor with defense, build the equipment that they need, and when you look at the expertise that we have – whether it be hydraulics, electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, drones and all of the specialized equipment that so many Saskatchewan companies build for our mining sector, for our oil and gas sector, ensuring that those sectors are more efficient and using some of the latest technology in the world – and then these companies in Saskatchewan are providing that technology to other mining companies around the world. It is nothing but a small step to take that innovation, that expertise, over to the to the military defense-procurement side, and so we’re actively speaking with, whether it be chambers of commerce, STEP, other organizations, and directly with some of these companies in this industry. “How do we support you in expanding and becoming qualified to partake in the investment that’s going to happen in Canada?” That, I would say, is crucially important. I mentioned that all too often we take our food and energy security for granted here in Canada, and we should not. We also take our very sovereignty and our ability to defend ourselves for granted, and we certainly shouldn’t. And so we welcome the increase in defense spending by the by the federal government, and I think there’s a real opportunity for Saskatchewan companies to to expand their operations in that space.

There’s been a lot of talk, especially with everything going on the United States and tariffs, on portfolio diversification. When you head over on what is a fairly significant trade mission to Europe, is this about diversification or is it about expansion of the exports that we’ve got going right now?

MOE: I would say both. First, the U.S. is our largest trading partner as Canadians and as a province of Saskatchewan. However, Saskatchewan is quite well diversified, relative to any other province. We export to over 160 countries around the world. I think there is only about 195 and, honestly, some of those we choose not to export to for obvious reasons. So the U.S. is going to continue to be our largest trading partner. There’s no doubt about that. And we might even further increase that trade with them over the next number of years, despite what we hear out of the White House on a daily basis. That being said, we’re also increasing the value of our exports. We see new uranium mines coming out, new potash mines, new copper mines, expansions into helium, lithium and the alumina found outside of Tisdale. We’re going to expand the value of our exports, and it would do us well, as we look at that expansion in value, that we try to diversify that to the greatest degree we can. It really creates resilience in the industries and, ultimately, resilience in the careers and jobs that are going to the families that are going to, essentially, generate their wealth in these industries for generations to come. So I think it’s both – this is an expansion of our trade practices but it’s also a diversification of that expansion in general, and that’s that’s the way that I look at it.

Let’s think positively. You hit a home run over there. We signed some intention documents that will lead toward further exports to the EU. Do we have the infrastructure needed? Are we able to get our products over there easily from from where we are in the country?

MOE: That’s interesting. And there’s a conversation around our infrastructure to get products to a boat here in Canada, and that conversation centers on, often, pipelines and oil, but it’s also true with agricultural products and potash, whether they’re heading to the Port of Vancouver or any other port on the West Coast, and so that’s part of the conversation. Once it’s on a boat, then, when it lands in Europe, how do they actually get it into that eastern Europe area? Potash is a good piece of the conversation. Uranium and nuclear fuel, or nuclear power, also, but let’s use potash as the example. Our largest competitors, when it comes to global competitors in the potash space, are Belarus and Russia. We see eastern Europe trying to access more Canadian potash for a number of reasons which, I think, we can be quite proud of. That is why we are visiting, for example, the Port of Antwerp in Belgium, which is not an eastern European country. However, they’re a port country, and there are some very rapid conversions that we’re seeing around ports there to ensure that they are able to access and unload potash in the in the Port of Antwerp and provide not just eastern Europe, but the entirety of Europe, with a sustainable supply of Saskatchewan potash or western Canadian potash. So there’s two pieces to that conversation. One is how we get it to a boat and how we get it from a boat to the end user. And in eastern Europe, the Belgian port is part of that, as well as some of the conversations we may have in Poland will be part of that as well.

I just wanted to touch base about the Weyburn Oil and Gas Show. I know you had the entire Sask. Party team down there for a caucus meeting. I heard your speech that was on Wednesday at lunch to the crowd. I felt like the energy at the oil show was really positive.

MOE: There’s a bit of optimism, and for good reason, in the energy industry in western Canada, including here in Saskatchewan. I would say we very much are in a moment here in Saskatchewan where we have an opportunity to actually attract that investment to increase the barrels that we are providing – which are some of the most sustainable barrels of oil that you can find on Earth – and this is an area where we talk about expanding our exports into the U.S. Our largest export is oil is largely coming out of that Weyburn, Estevan area, but also out of that North Battleford, Kindersley, Lloydminster area as well. And we have an opportunity, whether to be through Bridger or South Bow, to actually provide more barrels of oil to the U.S., but we also have, I think, a very real opportunity, not only through the expansion of the TMX pipeline, but a second piece of infrastructure to the west coast that are going to narrow the bases and open up the rest of the world to western Canadian oil. Everyone talks about Alberta and the million barrels that they might be able to increase there, but we have a real opportunity in Saskatchewan to increase by 100,000 or 300,000 or 500,000 barrels as well, which would represent somewhere between a 30, 50 or 100 per cent increase to our production. So a lot of optimism at the Weyburn Oil and Gas Show. I’m off on spending a day at the Global Oil Show in Calgary before we head to Europe, and I expect an equal amount of optimism there. Discussion, yes, but optimism as well, as really, for the first time, we’re not quite there yet, but we’re providing some very real certainty in an industry that is essentially on a 10-year hiatus of uncertainty due to federal regulation. A little more work to do, but we’re getting there and I think that’s at the core of the optimism that I felt in Weyburn. And you were down there, Evan, and I think you felt it as well.