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The Saskatchewan Heavy Construction Association (SHCA) commends the provincial government on signing the memorandum of understanding with Manitoba and Alberta to strengthen the economic corridors between our provinces.

“The Saskatchewan economy is dependent on trade and the demand for what we produce here
increases every year,” said SHCA president Shantel Lipp. “Heavy construction plays a vital role in creating the infrastructure that moves our products to the world.”

The memorandum focuses on four areas of cooperation between the three governments:

• Improve efficiency of inter-provincial highway and rail networks
• Encourage the federal government for infrastructure funding and national supply chain solutions
• Keep their economies competitive and grow capital investment and harmonize regulations to support businesses, industries and shippers

“While this memorandum is a step in the right direction, SHCA continues to encourage the
government of Saskatchewan to look at long-term funding commitments similar to Manitoba and
Alberta,” said Lipp. “Long-term commitments will help the industry plan for future growth, which will
contribute to meeting the goals set out in the memorandum.”

This fall, SHCA will be hosting the first-ever industry summit for Saskatchewan, bringing together contractors, suppliers, engineers and other professionals to discuss infrastructure and transportation.

“This memorandum complements our industry summit as we will be looking at ways to improve our infrastructure to create better supply chain flow through our trade corridors,” said Lipp. “As well, we are hoping to have a tri-provincial panel at the summit to discuss how inter-provincial cooperation helps our industry meet the challenges of growth.”

The Industry Summit and Trade Show will take place from Nov. 29 to 30, 2023 in Regina. SHCA represents over 200 member businesses in the heavy construction industry in Saskatchewan.

Provincial investments are important to improving the quality of life in Saskatchewan’s cities, towns, villages, resort villages and northern municipalities. 

With the release of the 2023-24 provincial budget, the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) recognizes the province’s effort to improve the lives of Saskatchewan’s residents, particularly through increased funding for infrastructure and health services. 

SUMA is pleased to see an investment of $89.4 million to build, operate and maintain the transportation system in northern Saskatchewan. The additional $6 million for the preservation and maintenance of northern roads to support the province’s forestry industry will also help support economic development in Saskatchewan’s northern communities.

All of Saskatchewan’s hometowns will benefit from the record investment of more than $297 million in Municipal Revenue Sharing, a 13 per cent increase from the 2022-23 year. However, with more than 80 per cent of Saskatchewan’s population calling an urban municipality home, SUMA believes the funding allocations need to be adjusted to reflect where Saskatchewan’s population lives and works, while recognizing the greater cost of providing services in Saskatchewan’s northern municipalities. 

“Municipal Revenue Sharing helps fund the projects that matter most to our communities,” SUMA president Randy Goulden said. “As Saskatchewan’s population continues to move to our villages, towns and cities, we need to ensure the revenue sharing model recognizes that shift and enables our hometowns to provide and maintain the infrastructure and services residents expect.”

With a projected $1 billion surplus, SUMA is disappointed that PST will continue to be applied to municipal construction projects. While the increased Municipal Revenue Sharing is welcome news for Saskatchewan’s hometowns, municipalities will be returning a significant portion of the funding to the province through PST on municipal construction projects. Data gathered by SUMA showed that medium-sized cities in Saskatchewan returned 24 to 39 per cent of their total Municipal Revenue Sharing grant back to the province in the form of PST on municipal construction projects in 2021. 

“As costs continue to rise due to inflation, the percentage of Municipal Revenue Sharing that we return to the province in the form of PST on our municipal construction projects also continues to increase,” said Goulden. “We could do so much more in our communities if the funding stayed in our municipalities.” 

In 2019, WorkSafe Saskatchewan, a partnership between the Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) and the Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety, launched the first three year Fatalities and Serious Injuries Strategy in an effort to help eliminate workplace fatalities and serious injuries.

In March, a new five-year strategy launched that focuses on two key streams of work that will be undertaken to reduce injuries and fatalities – a regulatory and enforcement stream, and a prevention and learning stream.

“Workplace safety is everyone’s responsibility,” Labour Relations and Workplace Safety Minister Don Morgan said. “This new strategy continues to make working with stakeholders to eliminate workplace injuries and fatalities in our province a priority. Everyone deserves to come home safely at the end of the day.”

“Collaboration with stakeholders is critical to bringing our injury rate down,” WCB board chair Gord Dobrowolsky said. “Building on the work of the last strategy, we will continue to engage workers and employers in finding ways to keep all workers safe on the job.”

Under this strategy, the three main priority workplace sectors of focus are:

• Health care
• Transportation
• Construction

These industries were chosen due to the high-risk nature of their work.

Approximately 2,400 Saskatchewan workers are seriously injured each year in Saskatchewan. Copies of the 2023-2028 Fatalities and Serious Injuries Strategy are available at www.worksafesask.ca.

Mark your calendars! Here are the full list of 2023 events.

SASKATOON: May 25-26, 2023

Member Social with the SHCA Board and Golf Tournament

Where: Hudson’s Pub and Dakota Dunes

Additional Event:

SASKATOON: April 16-19, 2023

SUMA Convention and Tradeshow

Where: TCU Place, Saskatoon