Saskatchewan Sets Course for Mining
SASKATOON — Saskatchewan’s annual Mining Supply Chain Forum opened this week with more than 2,500 participants, marking a second straight year of record attendance and putting a sharper focus on the growing role of Indigenous-owned businesses in the province’s mining economy. The two-day event matters beyond Saskatchewan because it offers a clear example for Thunder Bay and Northwestern Ontario, where governments and industry are also pushing to expand Indigenous participation in critical minerals and mining-related supply chains.
More than $1 billion in purchases from Indigenous-owned businesses
The forum, hosted by the Government of Saskatchewan in partnership with the Saskatchewan Mining Association and the Saskatchewan Industrial and Mining Suppliers Association, runs April 15 and 16 in Saskatoon. Organizers say it brings together mining companies and suppliers from across Canada and abroad to build business connections and highlight the capabilities of Saskatchewan-based firms.
For Indigenous communities and entrepreneurs, the most significant figure in this year’s event may be the procurement total. Saskatchewan Mining Association president Pam Schwann said mining companies in the province bought more than $3.2 billion in goods and services from Saskatchewan suppliers in 2025, including more than $1 billion from Indigenous-owned businesses.
That figure points to a growing Indigenous presence not only in mine-site employment, but in contracting, logistics, fabrication and other parts of the mining supply chain.
Province links mining growth to jobs and investment
Premier Scott Moe said the forum is intended to raise awareness of supply-chain opportunities while underscoring Saskatchewan’s role in global food and energy security. The province says Saskatchewan led Canada in mining investment in 2025, with an estimated $7 billion spent, and ranked third globally for mining investment attractiveness in the Fraser Institute’s 2025 survey.
The province also says Saskatchewan ranks first in Canada for critical minerals production and second nationally for Indigenous employment in the mining industry. Those claims are central to the government’s argument that mining growth is creating broader economic opportunities for Indigenous workers and businesses, although the benefits can vary widely from one region and community to another.
Why the story matters in Northwestern Ontario
For NetNewsLedger readers, the Saskatchewan forum offers a useful benchmark as Ontario moves ahead with its own critical minerals strategy and continues to stress Indigenous partnership as a foundation of mine development and supply-chain growth in the North. Ontario’s strategy explicitly says critical minerals create opportunities for Indigenous partners to participate in jobs, business development and broader economic benefits tied to resource projects.
That makes the Saskatchewan numbers worth watching in Thunder Bay and across Northwestern Ontario. As mining and critical minerals projects advance in the Ring of Fire, Red Lake and other northern regions, the long-term question will not only be how many mines get built, but how much of the supply-chain work reaches Indigenous-owned businesses and nearby communities.
Saskatchewan’s latest forum suggests that procurement can become a major part of that story when governments, mining firms and suppliers keep Indigenous participation near the centre of development planning. That is an inference based on Saskatchewan’s procurement data and Ontario’s stated policy direction on Indigenous partnerships in critical minerals.
