Saskatchewan’s new energy minister and energy critic

Meet Saskatchewan’s new energy minister and energy critic: Colleen Young and Sally Housser.

By Brian Zinchuk

REGINA – With a new legislative session now underway, Saskatchewan’s energy sector now has two new people focused on energy, on both the government and opposition benches.

Colleen Young, Sask Party MLA for Lloydminster, is the new Minister of Energy and Resources. Her official opposition counterpart is newly elected NDP Energy Critic Sally Housser, who represents the reconfigured Regina-University constituency.

They spoke one after the other on Nov. 27, as part of the traditional introductory speeches in response to the Speech from the Throne. Generally these speeches are a bit of a warm up for legislators, where they will thank and talk about their families and those who helped them get there. It’s an opportunity for the members to get to know each other, especially the new ones. However, they’ll often talk a bit about their roles. Here are the excerpts from those speeches that directly referred to energy. In Houser’s case, this was her first speech in the Legislature as an MLA.

Minister of Energy and Resources Colleen Young

“Our government is committed to making the necessary changes, investments, and providing the human resources that will improve services and help all citizens of this province to feel pride in a government who is listening and taking action. Many if not all my colleagues will touch on the important work that lies ahead of our government and our campaign commitments, but I just want to speak briefly on how we find the money to invest in these priorities — our very valuable and important energy and resources sector.

Mr. Speaker, I grew up in a large family on a farm in Saskatchewan and know that agriculture is a significant contributor to the economy of our great province. And we thank our farmers, ranchers for their continued commitment, hard work, and dedication to ensuring the spine of our province remains strong and stable. But since 2007 we need to recognize that our oil and gas and other resource sectors — potash and now critical minerals like helium, lithium, and I’m positive more to come — have become the number one contributors to our growing economy.

The current 2024-25 estimate for oil- and gas-related revenue is $1.23 billion, and the current 2024 estimate for oil and gas investment for new exploration and development is said to be 3.5 billion. Oil and gas has returned to 90 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. 459,000 barrels per day was produced this year alone, and our growth plan for 2030 has set a target of 600,000 barrels per day. And in talking with our industry, they are confident we are going to get there.

The current estimate for combined oil and gas production is already at 14.5 billion, and the value of potash sales in 2023 was 10.5 billion, exceeding our growth plan goal by nearly $2 billion. And as we’ve heard over the past few years, and that we should all be aware of, Saskatchewan is home to 27 of 34 critical minerals that the Government of Canada recognizes on their list and which positions this province for future growth opportunities and revenues, including helium, hydrogen, lithium, gold, diamonds, copper, and zinc.

We will continue to work with industries and potential investors to expand the opportunities in the mining sector. Global interest in Saskatchewan’s natural resource sector has increased considerably over the past decade. Saskatchewan definitely has the food, fuel, and fertilizer to help meet the food and energy security needs of the world and our province’s growing population.

There might be a few headwinds, but I am excited about the opportunity that lies ahead of the oil and gas industry, even with the new administration changes in the United States. Keep in mind they want what we want, and what strengthens our economy and creates well-paid jobs is what they want too — more oil and gas flowing through pipelines like Keystone XL expansion, and exports to more world markets. The province’s rich, abundant resources are foundational to this growth and the revenues to support it. The stability and competitiveness of our government’s regulatory and taxation environment are key and major contributors to investor confidence and economic growth.

Now we just need our federal Liberal-NDP coalition government to stand down on the numerous regulatory policies that they continue — continue — to impose on this industry, which are costly and are not in their bucket of responsibility to carry and manage. Clearly that authority belongs to the province of Saskatchewan.

Since 2007 our government has been working hand in hand with our energy sector and our resources sector to cut red tape, create effective investment incentive programs, which have supported investment projects related to innovation and value-added processing in the oil and gas and emerging critical mineral sectors.

A strong economy, built by working with our energy and resources sector industries and partners, is how we pay for and get to shorten surgical wait times, the building of more urgent care centres, more hospitals, new schools, and added educational teachers and support staff, the hiring of more health care professionals, expanding health programs that support people. It’s how we add more mental health beds and supports for those who need it.

It’s how we support small business and create entrepreneur opportunities. It’s how we hire more RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] and police officers to keep our homes, businesses, and communities safe. It’s how we can provide supports for the homeless and the most vulnerable in our communities, and it’s how we help make life more affordable for everyone in our great province.

Mr. Speaker, it is a new beginning for this province and this government. And I am honoured to be part of this government as we look forward to keeping this economy strong, all the while recognize the important partners in our energy and resources sectors that will keep our economy strong and moving forward.

NDP Energy Critic Sally Housser

I would like to thank my leader, the member for Regina Lakeview, for trusting me with the portfolio of Energy and Resources and SaskEnergy. And I look forward to working with the hon. minister on things that we can control within our borders to celebrate in our resource industry and to improve.

I’ve worked as a consultant, both in oil and gas and renewable energy, and I’m looking forward to engaging with industry stakeholders to let them know that from the C-suite to the shop floor, they have a partner in me and the official opposition.

We have some of the most talented, dedicated, and innovative small-business owners in this country, yet our urban centres are crumbling, and Saskatchewan has lost too many small businesses in the last year alone. We have the most tremendous wealth of natural resources — oil and gas, uranium, potash, solar, geothermal — but the people of Saskatchewan are not seeing that resource come down and feel the benefit to them.