The chorus singing about Saskatchewan’s capacity to flourish in a period of trade uncertainty has yet another voice.
This one is the Quebec-based financial house Desjardins which pegs Saskatchewan’s growth rate for 2025 at 1.6-percent and expansion of another percentage point in 2026. These are among the strongest in the country. Only fellow oil producers Newfoundland and Labrador as well as Alberta are slightly ahead of us in its forecast.
The financial institution also notes that Saskatchewan is the least reliant of all the provinces on exporting to the US. And even canola oil, which attracts a 100-percent tariff from China, goes to a wide range of markets: China accounts for 24-percent of our exports and the US takes 14-percent leaving 60-percent heading to other, non-tariff related markets, something it says can be enhanced with a bit of marketing effort on our part.
The organization also flagged strong non-residential investment in its forecast, particularly the Jansen potash mine as supportive of our growth which is be further supported by elevated potash prices and record uranium production which buffer trade disruptions.
