REGINA – Premier Scott Moe has pointed to a number of accomplishments after returning to Saskatchewan from his recent trade mission to India.
Moe's trade mission from Feb. 28 to March 6 also coincided in part with Prime Minister Mark Carney's visit to India. In speaking to reporters at the Legislature, Moe pointed to Cameco’s long term agreement on uranium of $2.6 billion over nine years as a positive.
Moe called the deal “about triple the size of the previous agreement we had for double the years, that's a positive for the mining industry as a whole in Saskatchewan.”
He also pointed to the pulse agreement signed between the University of Saskatchewan with National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management. Moe said this is “going to essentially add to the value-added capacity in India and feed a number of undernourished individuals in society there."
Moe also pointed to the Pulse Protein Centre of Excellence, which he said ”will come from Saskatchewan, also a positive, literally going to feed hundreds of millions of people a year when it's up and running.”
Finally, Moe also pointed to his meetings with a number of Indian government ministers on number of different issues, including on the Indian tariffs on pulse, 30 per cent on peas, and 10 per cent on lentils.
But there was no announcement of any movement on that issue following the meetings. Moe acknowledged there was still more work that needed to get done.
“Our ask was obviously to remove them, and certainly there is some domestic challenges that India has with that, so they won't be removed immediately. But we're going to continue to engage with the government in India over the next number of months and we'd be hopeful that if they could be… removed prior to the completion of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which we heard both Prime Ministers (Mark Carney and Narendra Modi) indicate that they'd like to see brought to conclusion this year, so continue to work on that part.”
Regarding those domestic challenges India is facing, Moe said they had an “agricultural support program that's in place when there's a gap between the domestic price of pulses and the international price, so I'd say it is a decision that they make from time to time.”
“Our hope would be first of all to have them removed in the near term, in the next number of months, and second of all is to have some certainty moving forward in the CEPA agreement. The CEPA agreement, which was being negotiated a number of years ago, did fall by the wayside when Canada and Indian relations fell by the wayside, and it's I think very positive for not just Saskatchewan, but particularly Saskatchewan because of the degree of exports that we send to India — for that agreement to come to conclusion this calendar year would be a real positive for our industries.”
As for how he assesses the India trip, Moe pointed to the long-term uranium supply deal as “pretty positive, in particular for northern Indigenous residents that work in that industry.”
Moe also pointed to the Pulse Protein Centre of Excellence as a positive step forward, as well as the “commitments by both Prime Ministers to come to a conclusion of a free trade deal, the CEPA agreement — that's pretty positive, and I wish we had that type of commitment, for example, with our largest trading partner in the United States of America.”
“We have some more work to do, admittedly, on the tariffs, and we're committed to doing it.”
In speaking to reporters at the Legislature, Opposition Leader Carla Beck acknowledged the Cameco deal on uranium “sounds like a good deal,” but said she wanted to see that benefit the people of the province.
“You know, time and time again we’ve had this government, this Premier, stand up and brag about how great the economy is only to see us on the bottom end of every measure around how people are doing in this province. So I hope to see benefits and details of that deal.”
As for the tariffs on pulse crops, Beck pointed to the urgency of the situation. “We’ve got the melt out there right now, I hope to see that announcement sooner than later, so that producers can have that information in hand before they go to seeding.”
