MELFORT — Premier Scott Moe held a cabinet meeting at the Kerry Vickar Centre in Melfort as part of a cross-province tour.
Moe said the cabinet meeting, on July 17, was a standard meeting, with many cabinet members in attendance.
“This is part of our effort to get out across the province,” Moe said. “We had a cabinet meeting in Weyburn not too long ago. We have a caucus meeting coming up in Prince Albert. We’ve been moving our cabinet and caucus meetings during the off-season, when we’re not in the legislative session, out and about and to communities in the province.”
Moe said manufacturing industry owners and managers were present over lunch to speak with cabinet.
He said the purpose of this was to continue the relationship between government and industry, as well as learning what’s not working.
“Where do we have room for improvement in our relationship, because ultimately in Saskatchewan it’s small and medium business that’s employing the constituents we represent, and providing wealth for the families, ultimately, that we represent.”
Moe said Todd Goudy, MLA for Melfort, has been engaging with “virtually all the manufacturing industry present in his constituency.”
“Today it was just a privilege to tell the manufacturers our cabinet and our premier want to hear from you,” Goudy said. “Now they’ve proven it today. [Cabinet] came out and gave them ample time to share what is going on in their businesses.”
Moe said the two parties discussed how government could support or “get out of the way” for the manufacturers to expand.
Moe said during this meeting he learned about the support the private sector industry had for their employees and their families.
“What we’re hearing, quite frankly, with the engagement is these communities are performing with supporting their employees, supporting their employees with every way they can, supporting their employees’ families has gone far beyond what we ever thought would be happening in the private sector.”
He also said his government needs to continue to focus on international engagement.
“There is a void with respect to the priority of international engagement at the federal government level. And the provinces, and myself as the leader of this province, have a responsibility to step forward and ensure that we are making an utmost priority – our engagement with not only our export markets, our trade partners around the world, but those are also the very same markets where we’re looking for investment attraction. To add value to our agro-food industry, for example.”
reporter@tisdalerecorder.ca
