REGINA — Premier Scott Moe was cautiously optimistic about the sovereign wealth fund announced by Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday, but made clear that on the regulatory side there was more work to do.
Moe said of the plans for the $25-billion fund that “we would say that this is a good initiative for our nation, largely, but it is an initiative.”
“I think it really speaks to what we need to do in this nation, working together at all levels of government to ensure that we can aspire to achieve what the prime minister has said a number of months ago — being the strongest economy in the G7 and Canada becoming an energy superpower.”
But Moe emphasized that in order to truly achieve those aspirations, “we're going to have to continue to work together to ensure there's a regulatory environment to attract that private sector investment.”
Moe pointed to some of that happening in Saskatchewan, with “60 projects, over $62 billion of investment.” But he added more can be done.
Moe said the opportunity is to “really restructure and I would say fix some of the wrongs that have been introduced in the regulatory environment to attract that private sector investment and really allow our economy to become all that we know it can become and achieve those aspirations of the prime minister.”
As for what needs to be fixed, Moe pointed to the “carbon tax, Bill C-69, the tanker ban, among many other initiatives that were brought forward only with the eye to an environmental or social impact without any economic assessment being done.”
Moe also pointed to the need for international engagement, and to enhanced collaboration between industry, the provincial government and the federal government.
“If we are going to achieve Canada becoming an energy superpower and having the strongest economy in the G7, we are going to have to, in the short term, run as many of those projects through the major projects office as we can. And in the medium term, we're going to have to do the hard work in changing those bills — Bill C-69 would be prime among them — but coming to agreement in the space of carbon taxation so that we can actually attract that investment here in our province, in our nation.”
Moe did acknowledge concerns about taking $25 billion and putting it into a sovereign fund at a time when the federal government itself was running a large deficit.
“At the end of the day, it's loan money,” Moe said. “That's a concern for, in this case, the federal government to work their way through. But I think that would generally be a concern of Canadians. However, the broader thought of having a sovereign wealth fund, I think, is a good discussion to have.”
The news from Ottawa is likely to reignite discussion about whether Saskatchewan ought to have a sovereign wealth fund of its own.
The idea has been floated on both sides of the political aisle in the province, and Moe himself acknowledged Monday that the government has had discussions about it, “which we still discuss from time to time,” he said.
A stumbling block for the province in bringing in a sovereign fund has been the deficit. At the end of her tenure, former finance minister Donna Harpauer expressed regret that she wasn't able to bring in a sovereign wealth fund, citing the province’s fiscal position.
When asked about that, Moe acknowledged deficits and debt have been considerations in their decision-making.
“This year we were running a deficit, so we won't be able to contribute to a sovereign wealth fund this year,” Moe said.
“Five, six years ago we had a couple years of surplus where we had paid down over $2 billion in provincial debt. And so that was the choice that we made is: do we put those dollars into a sovereign wealth fund and kick-start that initiative, or do we pay down some of our provincial debt? We chose to pay down the provincial debt, so it was a choice that we made. And if we are able to find our way to a surplus situation in the years ahead, that would be a choice we would make at that time.”
