Both Energy and Resources Minister and Premier Scott Moe were in Houston, Texas recently for a trade and investment mission. The delegation met with key US investors and promoted opportunities in Saskatchewan's natural resource sectors.  

West Central Online caught up with the Rosetown-Elrose MLA about the mission. Mr. Reiter elaborated on what was done to promote the province. 

“The Premier and I took a number of Saskatchewan companies, we asked them to attend as well and it gave us a chance, to meet with some US investors, and basically try to promote opportunities for Saskatchewan in our natural resource sector and also some Ag value added as well,” Mr. Reiter said. 

Mr. Reiter then gave a background of who was all at the mission. 

“As far as politicians, it was just the premier and I. But again, like I said, there's a lot of business folks came down with us, heads of different companies that are doing business in Saskatchewan. What we did there was basically a one-day conference that a lot of the business folks participated in. US investors were invited and were in the crowd, and then there was a lot of panel discussions and speeches about doing business in Saskatchewan from the folks that are doing business here. So, it was an opportunity to promote the province of Saskatchewan to folks who would consider doing investments here.” 

Reiter then elaborated on what all was discussed at the mission. 

“A lot of it focused around oil and gas, a lot of mining, critical minerals. There was also a panel on value added agriculture, so that was kind of the key components of the day. How the day started was, the Premier did a kickoff speech. And then him and I left and we broke off separate as well, and we each did separate bilateral meetings with different businesses that have already potentially expressed interest in Canada, and or Saskatchewan. We're trying to convince them Saskatchewan is a good place to do business, so we did those all day. Meanwhile, the rest of the folks were in the conference. And then I did the closing speech to the conference and then we had a chance to kind of mingle with everybody that was there as well.” 

Mr. Reiter then talked about what the mission meant to the people of West Central and the province as a whole. 

“First of all, when we get those kind of investment dollars attracted to Saskatchewan, we're developing our resources. It employs people. That means more tax dollars, more revenue to the province, for services for healthcare, education, highways, other services. So, it helps everybody in the province, specifically to our area though, we've got oil and gas in West Central Saskatchewan. There's potential there for more investment. We've got potash and then of course, the value-added agriculture. We're hugely agriculture in our area. And there's potential for other things. Just as an example, I had a chat with a businessperson that was interested in lithium, and there's some potential for lithium in our area down the road, so I think it was certainly good for your listening audience, but it was good for the whole province.” 

The office of Mr. Reiter will also be doing some follow ups on the mission to get some feedback. 

“What's key right now is in the coming weeks, is we're going to be doing follow-ups. We'll have officials reaching out to everybody that attended. My folks are going to reach out to people that I met with who individually expressed some interest. The Premier had bilateral meetings and a lot of them, as I mentioned, we're going to be reaching out trying to do follow up. We're optimistic that this is going to lead to some investment down the road.” 

The Rosetown-Elrose MLA is back in office this week and is always eager to hear from citizens in his constituency. You can contact Mr. Reiter anytime by calling (306) 787-1422 or emailing ministerER@gov.sk.ca.