Premier Scott Moe talks tariffs, federal budget and CFL West Final on Evan Bray Show

Saskatchewan’s premier says he’s cautiously optimistic about what he saw in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first federal budget, and he’s hoping to see real progress on a number of trade disputes in the weeks ahead.

During an interview on the Evan Bray Show on Thursday, Premier Scott Moe shared his thoughts on the federal budget, which included a projected deficit of $78.3 billion and plenty of new spending aimed at building infrastructure. The premier also discussed the warming relationship between his government and Ottawa, as well as the ongoing issues around tariffs from the United States, India and China.

Read more:

• Scott Moe says Friday will be ‘Green and White Day’ in Saskatchewan ahead of CFL West Final
• Federal budget forecasts $78B deficit as Liberals shift spending to capital projects
• Scott Moe shares concerns with federal ministers as India imposes tariff on peas

Additionally, Moe announced that Friday will be declared Green and White Day in Saskatchewan, as the Roughriders get ready to take on the B.C. Lions in the CFL’s Western Final this weekend.

Listen to the full interview with Moe, or read the transcript below:

The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

EVAN BRAY: The federal budget came down this week, and we’re hearing from various leaders throughout the country. I’m curious, from the provincial standpoint, what are your general thoughts on on this year’s budget?

SCOTT MOE: I’d say somewhat positive, and not a lot of surprises, I think, in the budget. Just three points. The first point would be $78 billion deficit. That’s big. That’s a big deficit, and that’s something that we’re going to have to work out, as Canadians, to get under control sooner rather than later. It’s there because of previous investment spending commitments that can’t be turned on a year, but I would say also it’s there due to the fact we have a sputtering Canadian economy right now with tariffs, trade issues around the world, and in the immediate term our economy is just not performing very well because we aren’t able to access these traditional markets – the U.S., China, India and and many others. And that’s showing up in the revenue lines of the federal budget, and I think you’ll see it in the provincial revenue lines as well over the next number of weeks. Second to that is infrastructure. Community based infrastructure was part of this budget. There’s details here that are going to matter, but we’re happy to see some renewal of the infrastructure program. And then, last but not least – and not surprising – were some comments around the carbon tax on the the industrial side, or the OBPS program. This is something that we’ve been working with the federal government on for a few months now, trying to find a landing spot so that we can move forward across Canada in a way that is good for the business environment, the industries that are creating wealth in Saskatchewan, and a place where we can actually function as a nation and achieve some of what the prime minister’s aspirations were around the strongest economy in the G7 and being a global energy superpower. So we’re working on that. It was mentioned in the budget, and we’ll continue to work on that in the months ahead.

Can we talk just a little bit more about energy? It wasn’t that long ago, I remember you and Danielle Smith meeting in Lloydminster. You had a bit of a summit on oil, gas and energy, and you laid out, I think it was about 10 different things that you wanted to see the federal government reverse direction on in this budget. We see oil and gas caps brought up, we see greenwashing brought up, but it feels like there’s still strings attached. So how optimistic are you that we’re making progress?

MOE: Somewhat, and at least we’re able to engage with with Prime Minister Carney and his administration. That’s new. Things were essentially being dictated by the previous administration, so we’re thankful for that. We’re somewhat hopeful we’ll be able to find a path forward that’s workable for our industries. And we very much align with the regulatory changes. We see it need to happen, but we very much align with Premier (Danielle) Smith in Alberta. Sometimes the emphasis is a little bit different. We have an energy transition that has to happen here from coal. We want to find our way to nuclear over the next couple of decades or so, and that’s all part of that discussion we need to have. We were supportive of that pipeline to the northwest coast, and working alongside Alberta on on that. And one of the things, in order for that to happen, is to be able to increase our very sustainable oil production, to fill it up and to provide energy security to the world. Those nine or 10 regulatory changes that need to happen, we need to work on that. Bill C-5 kind of legislates through it in the short term, but we need to continue to work on that with this federal government, or whoever is the federal government in in the days, weeks or months ahead.

You brought up nuclear power, premier. How about that Cameco Westinghouse deal with the U.S.? At $80 billion, this is a big deal. Tell me what it means for Saskatchewan? What’s the benefit for the province?

MOE: It’s huge for Saskatchewan. It’s huge for Canada, North America and the world. This is one of the largest, most significant deals in nuclear investments by any country, any Western country, in the world today. And it involves a fuel supply coming from Saskatchewan and ownership coming from a Saskatchewan company, in Cameco. And so there are all sorts of opportunities, not just on the mining end but on the entire engagement of the nuclear supply chain, as well as everything else that comes along with about $80 billion being invested in this space. Second to that, a more direct opportunity for North America and the western world, but Saskatchewan in particular as we’re looking at a nuclear future, is this is going to provide a cost certainty in that large reactor space. And this is one of the things that the western nuclear industry has really been searching for, is someone to step in and do a significant build, so that we can drive the costs of these reactors closer to where it is going to end up at when it’s up and functioning. And so this is huge for our conversation locally. It’s huge for Saskatchewan and the demand for Saskatchewan uranium, and we have at least two more mines that are working through the regulatory process, as well as expansion of the existing mines. And so this is exactly the opportunities that I think we can now repeat in other areas of the world, in the uranium industry, but also in other industries that we that we have in the province as well. So as challenging as I say the near term is for our Canadian economy, the medium to long term has some tremendous opportunities for our province and our nation.

You were talking about – and we’ve certainly felt from you since Prime Minister Mark Carney won the election – that there has been at least an appetite to consult, to talk. And I think about what’s going on with the tariffs from China on our agricultural sector. Last week, the prime minister met with China’s president. First time in a long time that that has happened. He gave you credit for some of the foundational groundwork you laid in trying to find a way from these tariffs. Are we any further ahead?

MOE: We’re getting there, and I might be back in that market sooner rather than later, as well, to keep that conversation alive and keep it progressing as as as quickly and as ambitiously as we can. Our three largest markets are the United States, China and India. We have tariff-related issues in each of those markets right now. Saskatchewan has trade offices in China and India. We’ll have delegations in Washington again likely before the end of the year. A little challenging there, with their government shutdown, however we’ve been talking with various Trump secretaries as well. We need to find our way through all of those trade-related challenges to fix that short-term challenge that we have in the Canadian economy that just is really sputtering away right now. I compare it to this, Evan, with the change in tone that you see in Saskatchewan. And I’m hopeful that it can continue. It’s always been a reactive tone from Saskatchewan, but for 10 years we had a number of things done to us and done to Saskatchewan industries that weren’t in the best interest of how we were creating jobs, creating wealth and creating opportunity for our young people and people that wanted to stay in Saskatchewan. Today, that’s changed. Today we, as Canada, are having things done to us by other national leaders, and we need to come together as Canadians to defend, in many ways, our very way of life, but certainly to defend the Canadian economy and the strength of the Canadian economy that we have. And so things have changed somewhat in the last year, year and a half, and I think we need to realize that.

Are seeing some positive direction in many areas, or at least in terms of the the willingness to work together, on things like the gun buyback program? Even the carbon tax issue is still a sticking point for our province. But in terms of the trade problems, it seems like a collaborative approach from our province. Doug Ford, on the other hand, recently threw that commercial out. He was very adamant that this was the right thing for him to do, to protect the people in his province. How did you see that commercial?

MOE: That was tough. I have known Doug for quite a long time, and he said this commercial was able to raise the conversation. Well, our goal is not to raise a conversation. Our goal is actually to get to a trade deal with the United States of America, and preferably one that has no tariffs at all. And I don’t think that commercial helped us in getting to that, to that place. We need to, as Canadians and as sub-national leaders, keep our eye on the ball, on what it is we actually want here. We don’t want the fight. We don’t want the conversation. We actually want a trade deal, and we should be all taking steps to get us to that point. And I realize that it isn’t going to be any premier and President Trump standing up announcing that trade deal. It’s going to have to be our prime minister, whether we voted for him or not, and we’re trying to support him to get to that point.

I want to talk pea tariffs very quickly before we move on to this announcement that you’ve got coming up, because these pea tariffs from India feel a bit different. It has more to do with internal pressure in the country, is my understanding. Is there a different strategy? We have a good relationship with India as a province. What’s the strategy there for you?

MOE: Yeah, we do. And we’ve been over there, and I have plans to either be in market or meeting with the highest-ranking officials or ministers in in in Prime Minister Modi’s government in the near future as well, on this topic. And there’s really two reasons why pea tariffs will go on India. One is external, when they’re not getting along with the country and need to have a counter tariff, or apply a tariff in some way. One is internal when they’re trying to protect some of the prices for their ag producers, which are largely sustenance producers. It’s not market-based agriculture per se, like it is here in western Canada. And so we work through those two challenges in a different way. Thankfully, we have a very strong trade office, both in India and China, and we’re working through that trade office to sit down with Indian officials very shortly and to ensure that if there’s going to be no movement in the short term on the broader tariffs that they’ve applied, when there is movement that it should be Saskatchewan and Canada that moves first, and we have a good enough relationship that we can have a pretty open conversation about that. And I’m very hopeful that we’re going to be able to find our way, in the next few months, hopefully to a U.S. trade deal of some sort, but also some some type of reprieve or changing in our relationship with China, and broadening of it past even beyond canola, and finding our way through this most recent pulse challenge with India. These are our three largest markets, and it is imperative that we have non-tariff access to all of them at the same time.

OK, you’ve got a big announcement 9 a.m. Can you give us a sneak peek? I mean, we’re 10 minutes away.

MOE: We have Gainer the Gopher and some of the Riders organization in here today, where we’re going to sign a very big proclamation and turn around show to everyone that tomorrow, Friday, the November the 7th, is going to be Green and White Day. We have the Western Final coming up. We have a strong Roughriders organization – best team in the league this year – that are going to hit the hit the ground here in Regina, Saskatchewan, for the Western Final. And certainly, we’re hoping for success in that. We’re asking everyone in the province to proudly wear their green and white on Friday, November 7th to support our professional football team.

What a big weekend of football, premier. We got the Rams and the Hilltops, Riders and Huskies.

MOE: We can be very proud of the youth and the athletes that we have in this province. And this is a weekend for us to to put our pride on full display, for everyone in this nation to see.

I know it’s been said before, premier, but I think sports brings us together. The announcement of the 2027 Grey Cup, the announcement of the 2027 Brier, both in our province. This is real positive stuff at a time where I feel like we need that.

MOE: Yeah, very much. And he saw that even with the Blue Jays. They made a tremendous run to the World Series, as you know, Evan. You and I can both get really get behind the Edmonton Oilers and their run for Stanley Cup this year, but in the interim, and if we don’t agree on that in the interim, we certainly are going to agree on getting behind our Saskatchewan Roughriders. But it’s good for the province and it’s good for Canadians, and it’s just really good, I think, for each of us as individuals to pull together, whether it’s in this province or across Canada, and at times, defend what what we value, but to really agree and move forward as a nation and as a province. And if it takes a sports team for us to remind us what we can accomplish when we do that, all the better.