REGINA, Sask. — It was a busy day at the Conexus Arts Centre for the 2026 Business Expo and Procurement Forum on Oct. 22.
The forum, put on by the Government of Saskatchewan, was described by the government in a news release as a chance for businesses, vendors and suppliers to connect with the public sector, as well as municipalities, post-secondary institutions, school divisions and health-care organizations.
There were about 50 exhibitors in the trade show area, while the main stage was busy with presentations throughout the day. Those presentations included topics such as SaskTenders, the Canada-Saskatchewan Workforce Tariff Response and growth opportunities across government. There were other presentations elsewhere at the event, including from the City of Saskatoon, the City of Regina and the University of Saskatchewan, as well as updates on projects from SaskPower and SaskTel.
Sean Wilson, minister of SaskBuilds and Procurement, said the Business Expo and Procurement Forum is "put on yearly to get new businesses to come here to network with other companies and with the government of Saskatchewan as far as getting into tenders and to be able to do business with the provincial government."
Wilson said the benefits of a forum like this are "driving competitive bids, facilitating growth of new upstart companies, and just overall engaging with the industry, finding out what we can do better, letting them know what we're looking for from private business, kind of just an overall engagement exercise with everyone."
The province had estimated that upwards of 300 people would attend the event, and the trade show floor was packed with interested people throughout the day.
"As you walk the trade floor, you'd see that there are all sizes of companies and representatives from other industry associations. That trickles into employment for individuals, and just being able to engage with government, that is the way to get more work for more people in Saskatchewan," Wilson said.
This year's event comes at a time when there is particular interest in procurement as an issue, given the economy and ongoing trade issues.
Wilson said that "regardless of what kind of a time we're in, and there is a lot of uncertainty across Earth right now, having a strong, steady Saskatchewan and having the ability to be able to grow some of our smaller companies into larger ones that can do business with us, it's always been part of our directive and of our plan since we got the honour of forming government. So this is just a continuation of things we've always been doing, which is getting companies ready and able to do work with the provincial government."
Wilson also emphasized the province's focus on Canadian and Saskatchewan procurement.
"If you look at last year's numbers, 99% of all procurement was Canadian, and out of that 99 per cent, 94 per cent was Saskatchewan companies. So regardless of what's going on, we've always had that push, and again, this just continues our direction that we want to go in."
Wilson said keeping that procurement number high was an "ultimate goal" of an event such as this one.
