Saskatchewan’s Spring Budget Should Support Programs That Catalyze 21st Century Economic Growth

By Jess Sinclair
CCI Director of Prairie Affairs

Last week, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe announced an updated plan for the U.S. — Saskatchewan border, citing security as a mutual concern for both Canada and the United States.

At the same announcement, Moe also indicated he is uneasy about potential American tariffs on his province’s potash and agri-food exports, among other sectors.

It’s no mystery that many Canadians are anxious about the possibility of  friction with our largest trading partner. Canada is already lagging in labour productivity, the key driver of economic growth. When adjusted for inflation and immigration, the country’s economy has actually shrunk over the past decade. Trump’s tariff threats could further strain our already struggling economy.

At the same time, investment in modernizing national defence infrastructure has been described as disastrous, raising questions about Canada’s ability to remain competitive and secure in an increasingly uncertain global landscape.

Economic self-sufficiency and national security begin with modernizing our innovation industrial frameworks while adopting new, efficient, and outcome-driven solutions to longstanding challenges.

Saskatchewan’s government, led by new Minister of Trade, Export Development and Innovation Minister Warren Kaeding, should look at the following policy measures in advance of the province’s 2025 budget:

1. Encourage Saskatchewan post-secondary institutions to update their intellectual property commercialization frameworks to include education for staff and inventors as well as support for patent development and legal support, where appropriate. They don’t need to reinvent the wheel to do this; Saskatchewan can look to what provinces like Ontario have already done in this area.
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2. Reform the Saskatchewan Commercial Innovation Incentive so that more local companies are able to access the province’s patent box across a broad spectrum of industries. Some of that work has already begun, but government should not lose focus on these efforts.
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3. Prioritize an efficient procurement system for homegrown technologies that can make government operate more efficiently. In particular, there are massive opportunities to adopt Canadian innovations that can improve health care services.

The province is home to a number of successful tech companies like Vendasta and 7Shifts. Premier Moe has described innovation as a catalyst to grow Saskatchewan’s core sectors and diversify the  economy. He’s absolutely correct, and he should empower his government to work on the policies that will ensure 21st century prosperity for Saskatchewan.

Jess Sinclair leads CCI’s advocacy efforts in the prairies, and can be reached at jsinclair@canadianinnovators.org.

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About the Council of Canadian Innovators

The Council of Canadian Innovators is a national member-based organization reshaping how governments across Canada think about innovation policy, and supporting homegrown scale-ups to drive prosperity. Established in 2015, CCI represents and works with over 150 of Canada’s fastest-growing technology companies. Our members are the CEOs, founders, and top senior executives behind some of Canada’s most successful ‘scale-up’ companies. All our members are job and wealth creators, investors, philanthropists, and experts in their fields of health tech, cleantech, fintech, cybersecurity, AI and digital transformation. Companies in our portfolio are market leaders in their verticals, commercialize their technologies in over 190 countries, and generate between $10M-$750M in annual recurring revenue. We advocate on their behalf for government strategies that increase their access to skilled talent, strategic capital, and new customers, as well as expanded freedom to operate for their global pursuits of scale.