Premier Scott Moe said he’d invited Prime Minister Mark Carney to Saskatchewan for a meeting, and Carney suggested a First Ministers meeting be held in the province in early June. May 7, 2025 (Lisa Schick/980 CJME)

Premier Scott Moe looking forward to First Ministers’ meeting in Saskatoon in June

By Lisa Schick May 7, 2025 | 5:37 PM

For the first time in about 40 years, according to Premier Scott Moe’s office, Saskatchewan will host a First Ministers’ meeting.

It will be the first time since the federal election that all the premiers and Prime Minister Mark Carney will meet in person.

The plan came about during a call Carney held with the premiers Wednesday morning to talk about his meeting on Tuesday with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Premier Scott Moe took to social media Wednesday afternoon to applaud the new Prime Minister on his choice to host premiers in Saskatchewan.

Looking forward to hosting PM @MarkJCarney and Canada’s Premiers in Saskatoon in early June as we work together to build a stronger Canadian economy.

It will be the first meeting of the PM and Premiers in Saskatchewan in 40 years.

Great choice by the PM to hold his first… https://t.co/0CuhrqBRPQ

— Scott Moe (@PremierScottMoe) May 7, 2025

Moe said he appreciated the debrief, that it hadn’t always happened in the past, and he appreciated how Carney’s meeting with Trump appeared to go, saying it was as good as can be expected.

“Prime Minister Carney had said ‘don’t expect white smoke coming out of the White House,’ I think many Canadians were happy there just wasn’t black smoke coming out of the White House,” said Moe.

He said this appeared to be a much more positive meeting than Canada has had with the U.S. in quite some time, there was no “Governor Carney” talk, though Moe said there was some mention of the “51st state”.

“I don’t think the prime minister takes that seriously and I don’t think we as Canadians should take that literally either,” he said.

Moe said he hopes the positive tone sets the groundwork for negotiations around the CUSMA.

Moe believes the other premiers are feeling fairly positive as well after the call – there was an acknowledgement that there’s still a ways to go with Trump and his administration, and that there’s also a ways to go in Canada and becoming truly unified.

The meeting on June 2 will be a good discussion leading up to Canada hosting the G7 in Banff later on in June, according to Moe.

He said relationships with the U.S. and China, bringing Canadians together and Western alienation would likely be topics of discussion for the Saskatoon First Ministers’ meeting.

“I think we can provide some relevant advice for some policy direction change for the prime minister so that we can find that common ground where Saskatchewan industries and people are really feeling respected within the nation of Canada, and that hasn’t always been the case over the last decade,” explained Moe.

The premier has laid out his priorities for Saskatchewan when it comes to the new federal government, including the carbon tax, canola tariffs and clean energy regulations, and Moe said he thinks Carney is open to having conversations on each of those topics.

Moe said he hopes things can change when it comes to how policies are arrived at in Ottawa, and said some things will need to change in existing policies for a legitimate restart to the relationship Saskatchewan has with the federal government.