Month In Review – Saskatchewan

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Month In Review – Saskatchewan

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LAWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

New Laws

May 14: The Saskatchewan Internal Trade Promotion Act (Bill 24) providing for mutual recognition of goods and services entering the province from other Canadian provinces and territories received Royal Assent and took effect. The Bill is patterned after legislation recently adopted around the country in response to U.S. and Chinese tariffs.

Action Point: Find out about the 5 ways the new interprovincial free trade and labour mobility regulations will impact HR operations.

New Laws

Apr 30: Prairies Economic Development Canada (PrairiesCan) announced that it will invest over $7.9 million to support private sector development of AI in Saskatchewan, including $3.7 million to Co.Labs to expand its Expert and X-in-Residence programs and enhance agtech programming. The remaining $4.2 million will go to Coconut Software Corporation, Vendasta Technologies Inc., HomeTeam Live Technologies Inc., the University of Regina, and Artificial Intelligence Saskatchewan Corp.

New Laws

Apr 24: PrairiesCan will invest more than $8.2 million in federal Regional Defence Investment Initiative (RDII) funding in three Saskatchewan projects, including: i. $5 million to Parkland Welding & Machine Ltd. and PWM Hydraulics Ltd. (PWM) for deploying Computer Numerical Control machining and robotics; ii. $3 million to the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute to create an advanced military engineering and testing facility for off-road and on-road heavy-vehicles; and iii. $277,000 to Saskatchewan Polytechnic’s Digital Integration Centre of Excellence (DICE) to develop and test a low-cost multi-agent AI drone system for autonomous command and control.

New Laws

May 5: The newly passed Time Act abolishes Saskatchewan’s unique patchwork of local time standards in favour of a new regime that aligns Lloydminster and other communities that follow Mountain Standard Time in winter with the rest of the province in following Central Standard Time. Moreover, CST will be the standard throughout the year from now on. The Bill also provides for border communities who want to follow the time zone of a neighbouring province, such as Mountain time in Alberta.

Drugs & Alcohol

May 5: The Assembly passed Bill 48, The Compassionate Intervention Act, allowing for addicts to receive treatment against their will at the request of family members made through the court. The legislation also authorizes law enforcement personnel to get a medical professional referral or court warrant to involuntary bring individuals whose substance use is putting their own life or the lives of others at serious risk to a Compassionate Intervention Assessment Centre.

Action Point: Find out how to implement an effective fitness for duty policy to control substance abuse at your workplace.

Workers’ Compensation

Apr 27: The Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) issued a new one-page guidance sheet on how to create, open, and use an online workers’ compensation account.

CASES

Health & Safety: OHS Training Violation Costs Power Line Company $70,000

A power line construction company was fined $70,000 after pleading guilty to not providing required safety information, instruction, training, and supervision resulting in serious injury to a worker. The victim in this case was injured while working on a power pole. One OHS charge was dropped [Hundseth Power Line Construction, Govt. Press Release, April 9, 2026].