Saskatchewan Premier Moe says staying hopeful ahead of U.S. tariff threat

REGINA — Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe says he’s staying hopeful that he won’t wake up on Saturday morning to tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Trump’s administration says the country will impose a 25 per cent levy for other Canadian goods on Saturday, as well as a 10 per cent tariff on Canadian oil around mid-February.

The president says there is nothing Canada can do to prevent the tariffs from coming into force.

Moe says he’s been meeting with industry to discuss exporting more of its products to other markets.

Saskatchewan exports products to about 160 countries, but the U.S. receives roughly 55 per cent of the province’s goods.

Moe says his government is staying hopeful that tariffs won’t be imposed and stresses that it’s no good to discuss counter-tariffs until Trump actually follows through.

“It’s our hope that I’m going to be able to say that tomorrow as well,” Moe told reporters Friday.

“We would ask President Trump’s administration to not put those tariffs on and we would also ask our federal government to address the priorities that President Trump has raised.”

Trump has cited an “unprecedented invasion of illegal fentanyl” across the Canadian and Mexican borders, along with trade deficits with Canada, as his primary reasons for looking to impose the tariffs.

Asked about a recent drug bust that saw officers seize eight kilograms of fentanyl from a vehicle in southern Saskatchewan, Moe said he gives credit to the agencies responsible for getting hard drugs off the street.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures show officials seized 9,930 kilograms of fentanyl at American borders between October 2023 and September 2024, with 20 kilograms of that coming from Canada.

Saskatchewan recently redeployed 16 officers to the border, while the federal government committed $1.3 billion in December to bolster border security.

“At the end of the day, those drugs cannot be coming into our country,” Moe said.

“The points of agreement that I would have, and I think many Canadians would share with President Trump, is, let’s do what we can to remove fentanyl … because it’s not a drug at all; it’s poison.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 31, 2025.

The Canadian Press