REGINA — With rural leaders meeting in Regina this week at the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) convention, provincial politicians descended on the REAL District to engage with local reeves and councillors.
Topics important to rural Saskatchewan, including municipal funding and the federal gun buyback, were among the key issues discussed. At the SARM convention, Premier Scott Moe particularly focused on amendments to the Saskatchewan Firearms Act that would allow licensed gun owners to take firearms that are being prohibited by the federal buyback program and store them legally at home on behalf of the province of Saskatchewan.
Those changes became law this week, as third reading passed at the legislature and the bill was given royal assent on Thursday.
Minister of Justice and Attorney General Tim McLeod was behind the legislative changes, and Moe raised some eyebrows by referring to McLeod’s comments in committee earlier this week on the topic.
“I also heard this morning that his wife, who is a good Shellbrook girl, had said to him ‘that’s the hottest thing a lawyer has ever said,’ so we’ve got to get Tim home here pretty quick.”
Moe also spoke about another hot topic for SARM delegates — gophers impacting farm and ranch land, and in particular the federal ban on the emergency use of strychnine to control them. He said Premier Danielle Smith and he penned a joint letter requesting the reversal of that decision.
“We should be able to use that product,” Moe said.
The SARM convention also featured the bearpit session, in which cabinet ministers took questions from the floor on a variety of topics ranging from education and libraries to public safety and environmental policy.
One environment-related topic that came up was incineration, with one delegate raising a local incineration project and complaining about federal red tape preventing it from proceeding.
In his response, Moe suggested Minister McLeod could do something similar to the gun buyback legislation and craft provincial legislation that could allow the project to move forward legally around the federal act.
When asked by reporters whether working around federal legislation is a practice he intends to increase, Moe said “I hope not.”
“Our first ask would be the federal government to allow what is… a project that local RM’s done in the southwest, and I’m familiar with it because I was Environment Minister when we moved forward with a pilot project on this particular incinerator. And my understanding is there’s a couple nuances with respect to the Clean Air Act that is a federal piece of legislation. Our first task would be, let’s give this a chance. Let’s give this a chance to move forward. And if there’s some changes that can be made to the federal act to put in place what those in the community certainly believe is a good initiative, let’s look at that. If we can’t do that, is there a way for us as a province to make it happen?”
But Moe insisted this was not circumventing federal law. “No, we’d look at how can we use provincial law to ensure that this thing could operate in compliance. If we were circumventing it, we’d tell them to go operate right now.”
A key highlight of the SARM convention came Tuesday with an announcement by Minister of Government Relations Eric Schmalz on municipal revenue sharing. He confirmed the amount would be $392.4 million for 2026-27, a record amount and an increase of $30 million over last year. These funds will be distributed to Saskatchewan communities to be spent with no strings attached.
Health care a major focus of the week
Beyond the SARM convention, another major development this week was the announcement by Premier Moe and Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill of the Patients First Health Care Plan in Saskatoon on Monday.
The plan outlined more than 50 actions “to ensure patients are receiving the right care in the right place at the right time,” according to the province’s news release. Those include increasing the number and expanding the scope of practice for health-care professionals, expanding virtual care, increasing the number of urgent care centres in the province and continuing recruitment and training of doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners.
But the plan was immediately criticized by opposition New Democrats, who said the government released a similar plan dating back to 2009.
“Really they’re recycling the same policies and themes, but as we know, we only see this health system moving backwards,” said health critic Meara Conway.
The Opposition also spent the week attacking the provincial cabinet on “what they knew and when did they know it” regarding SaskPower rate increases.
Opposition critic Aleana Young also spent the week attempting to obtain unanimous consent to bring her private member’s bill aimed at stopping SaskPower and SGI rate increases to the floor again for second reading, but was unsuccessful.
