LAWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

Labour Relations

Apr 10: Saskatchewan announced the re-establishment of a committee to provide the government advice on labour relations, employment standards, and workplace safety laws and regulations.

New Laws

Mar 30: 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 passed Second Reading. 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 20: The new Saskatchewan budget doubles the Volunteer First Responders' Tax Credit for volunteer firefighters, search and rescue personnel, and emergency medical first responders. It also provides for a five-year extension of the non-refundable 15% Chemical Fertilizer Incentive corporate income tax credit on capital expenditures of $10 million or more for newly constructed chemical fertilizer production facilities.

Training

Mar 27: The new Canada–Saskatchewan Workforce Tariff Response will provide $15.6 million to support employers and workers in the steel, softwood lumber, and other sectors affected by tariffs. SaskJobs will distribute the funds over a three-year period to: i. unemployed workers seeking to build skills for in-demand jobs; ii. workers whose employers are participating in Employment Insurance Work-Sharing agreements, allowing them to upskill or retrain; and iii. employed workers who want to strengthen their skills.

New Laws

Apr 13: The Governments of Canada and Saskatchewan announced a joint investment of more than $25.9 million through the Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund (CHIF) to develop or improve the essential water, wastewater, stormwater, and solid waste infrastructure needed to enable the construction of up to 29,370 housing units in Saskatoon, Moose Jaw, and Regina.

Training

Apr 1: Saskatchewan launched a new program offering students classroom training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) use. Undertaken in partnership with the Heart & Stroke Foundation, CardiacCrash will provide teacher training and learning materials at no cost to school divisions that choose to participate starting in the 2026-27 school year.

Action Point: Find out how to save lives by implementing an AEDs Program at your workplace.

Health & Safety

Apr 15: For the third year in a row, Saskatchewan’s time-loss injury rate reached an all-time low of 1.66 per 100 workers in 2025, as compared to 1.72 per 100 in 2024. The Total injury rate dipped from 3.91 to 3.68 per 100 workers. Meanwhile, the number of full-time equivalent workers covered by the Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) hit a record high of 473,086, up from 443,344 in 2024. Total injury claims accepted increased by 0.43% to 17,401 from 17,327. Workplace fatalities in 2025 remained at 27, of which 11 were due to occupational disease and 16 were traumatic incidents.

Action Point: Find out how to create a vibrant workplace health and safety culture at your company.

Workers’ Compensation

Mar 12: A new Saskatchewan WCB Fact Sheet clarifies how to calculate the prorated maximum assessable amount of excess wages, that is, total gross wages above maximum assessable earnings, of a worker who spends time in two or more provinces. The formula: SK gross/total gross x SK maximum assessable earnings = prorated SK maximum.

CASES

Termination: High Court Upholds $350,000 Wrongful Dismissal Damages Award

Saskatchewan’s top court upheld a lower court ruling that a senior services manager was wrongfully dismissed and didn’t resign or abandon his employment. The break came during the pandemic after a series of heated meetings with management about the company’s cost overruns. “I’m done,” proclaimed the manager walking out of the office never to return. The company didn’t produce the evidence necessary to prove that this was just a heated moment during a stressful situation and that the manager demonstrated a “clear and unequivocal” intent to resign, the high court reasoned. There was also evidence that the manager withdrew his resignation, if that’s what it amounted to, and that the company didn’t initially accept it in any event. Result: The $348,000 damages award against the company stood [Korpan Tractor and Parts (Parriwi Management Inc.) v Denton, 2026 SKCA 44 (CanLII), March 27, 2026].

Action Point: An employee’s intent to resign must be clear and unambiguous. Simply assuming that an employee who stops working for you has resigned or quit can lead to liability for wrongful dismissal. Find out more about the law of resignation and how to avoid liability when terminating employees who haven’t really quit.