Manufacturing

The Problem

Saskatchewan doesn't currently have the tools or means to build its own future.

The Promise

The NCP will bring back manufacturing in a way that serves the people and the goals of Saskatchewan.

The Plan

The NCP will introduce The Saskatchewan Manufacturing Corporation Act, which will allow Saskatchewan to start building our own future.

The Saskatchewan Manufacturing Corporation:

A new Crown corporation known as the Saskatchewan Manufacturing Corporation (SMC) will be established.

The SMC will be mandated to build and operate new modern factories in Saskatchewan, producing what we need, ourselves, using the greenest available technologies and Canadian-made supplies where possible.

The costs will be competitive for each industry, with the goal of bringing in profitable returns and solid growth.

The SMC Board will include representatives from customer Crowns (SHC, SaskEnergy, SaskPower, SaskGrocery), representatives from worker unions, Indigenous governing body representation, independent directors with manufacturing expertise, and community representatives from facility locations.

The SMC will prioritize "human-in-the-loop" automation that enhances worker productivity rather than replacing workers entirely. Any automation will focus on dangerous, repetitive, or precision tasks. Job creation targets will be set for each facility and reported annually.

If automation reduces labour needs below targets, workers will be redeployed to new SMC facilities or offered transition support.

The SMC will partner with the Saskatchewan Century Corps to train factory workers through the Infrastructure & Housing stream and Operations & Logistics stream.

• See Policy 11 - The Saskatchewan Century Corps for more.

All SMC construction projects will utilize Standing Master Agreements with the Saskatchewan Century Corps, providing training opportunities in the Infrastructure & Housing stream. Once operational, SMC facilities will offer permanent employment pathways for SCC graduates.

The SMC will license out the factory designs from factories where similar work is already being done around the world. That way we can focus on building right away.

Apprenticeship programs will be established for skilled trades positions (millwrights, electricians, welders, machinists).

All SMC facilities will be unionized workplaces with wages and benefits meeting or exceeding new fair labour standards.

• See Policy 09 - Fair Labour for more.

SMC will prioritize hiring from Energy Veterans transitioning from oil and gas who are interested in any of the factories.

• See Policy 10 - Energy Veterans for more.

Each factory will be mandated to achieve net-zero operations using 100% renewable power within ten years of operations. Each facility will be required to generate its own renewable power and operate grid-scale batteries to offset the higher grid load factories require.

Each product produced by the SMC must come with a digital material passport that lists exactly what materials are in it, ensuring it can be recycled safely in the future.

Each SMC subsidiary will be required to publish a decarbonization and circular-manufacturing plan. Facilities will aim to reach net-zero operations over time to the maximum extent technically, economically, and safely feasible for their industry.

Light-industrial facilities, including housing and energy assembly plants, will be built to high-efficiency building standards and will use rooftop or on-site solar, battery storage, and electrified process heat where practical.

Heavy industrial and nuclear facilities will prioritize clean grid power, industrial efficiency, waste-heat recovery, low-carbon thermal systems, and safe materials handling, rather than identical building or waste rules across every site.

SMC will pursue a circular-manufacturing model that minimizes waste and maximizes reuse, repair, recycling, and safe material recovery. Hazardous, regulated, or nuclear waste streams will be managed under all applicable provincial and federal safety laws and are exempt from any blanket zero-waste rule where safety requires.

The SMC factories will follow a "zero-waste" manufacturing policy. Wherever possible, all material waste will be recycled, composted, or converted to energy.

All SMC factories will use a mix of cutting-edge automation and human skilled trades, ensuring high-paid jobs as well as high-speed production.

The SMC will not seek to displace existing Saskatchewan-owned processors that meet provincial standards and labour requirements. All SMC facilities will be sized and located to fill gaps in existing processing capacity, not duplicate it. Existing processors may be offered supply agreements or partnership opportunities with SAB and SaskGrocery.

Where existing facilities are foreign-owned or fail to meet standards, the SMC may offer to acquire them at fair market value.

The SMC will operate as a holding company with distinct subsidiaries:

• SMC Housing Inc.
• SMC Energy Inc.
• SMC Agriculture Inc.
• SMC Nuclear Inc.

Each subsidiary will have its own management team, budget, and performance targets, while sharing corporate services and governance.

SMC Housing Inc

The first priority of the SMC is to build a prefab modular housing factory to be known as SMC-H1. It will be located in or near Saskatoon or Regina to access labour markets and transportation.

SMC-H1 will focus on building modular, easily connected, volumetric modules, such as bathrooms, kitchens, and panelized walls, ensuring they meet the new housing code standards. The housing designs will follow SaskHomes universal designs so they will be uniquely Saskatchewan, ready for the 21st Century, and easily built in a factory and/or on-site.

New supply agreements and partnerships will be made with the Saskatchewan Forestry sector to ensure that local resources are used where possible.

• See Policy 15 - Resource and Energy Sovereignty for more.

SMC-H factories will be designed for continuous operation, using six rotating crews or another equivalent staffing model sufficient to maintain 24/7 production while preserving 30-hour work weeks under the new Fair Labour Standards.

• See Policy 09 - Fair Labour for more.

The Saskatchewan Housing Corporation (SHC) will sign multi-year contracts and demand agreements, ensuring that the demand is there for 24/7 production of SaskHomes.

All SMC-H products will meet or exceed National Building Code and Saskatchewan's newly enhanced 21st Century building standards. SMC-H factories will pursue third-party certification for modular construction quality.

• See Policy 05 - Housing Crisis for more.

While the primary output will be for Saskatchewan, units will be available for sale to other provinces or territories facing similar housing crises.

The goal is for SMC-H1 to have the capacity to produce 5,000 to 10,000 housing units annually, ramping to full production within 3 years of groundbreaking.

SMC Energy Inc

SMC will build an assembly factory known as SMC-E1. It will assemble and produce the heat pumps needed for homes to connect with SaskEnergy's new Thermal Utility, as well as the hardware for SaskPower's Virtual Power Plant. SMC-E1 will also assemble residential-scale, commercial-scale, and grid-scale batteries, purchasing the cells on the global market.

• See Policy 06 - 21st Century Communities for more.
• See Policy 15 - Resource and Energy Sovereignty for more.

SMC-E1 will be co-located with SMC-H1 for supply chain efficiency. Each item produced by the SMC-E factories must be designed to be fully and easily repairable and replaceable as the technology matures.

SMC-E1 will sell Thermal Utility Conversion Kits that will have all the parts and appliances needed to convert a home to using SaskEnergy's thermal loops. These kits can be purchased by private individuals, but will mainly be sold to SaskEnergy for implementation.

SMC-E products will meet CSA standards for electrical equipment and carry full warranties.

Excess SMC-E heat pumps and other products designed for Saskatchewan's climate will be marketed and sold across the Canadian prairies and northern US.

The goal for SMC-E1 is to reach mature annual output of up to 50,000 heat pumps, thermal-utility conversion kits, and related energy hardware, with production ramped in line with SaskEnergy's phased thermal-utility expansion, retrofit demand, Virtual Power Plant buildout, and export opportunities.

SMC Agriculture Inc

The SMC will build out Saskatchewan's local agricultural processing capacity in three main ways: regional abattoirs, regional oil crushing and bottling facilities, and regional flour mills.

All SMC-Ag facilities will partner with the Saskatchewan Agricultural Board to create voluntary local supply arrangements, forward contracts, and stable purchase agreements so that participating Saskatchewan farmers and producer pools have reliable local buyers for local production.

SMC-Ag Abattoirs will be built around the province, distributed across agricultural regions, co-located with nearby livestock farms, so that local farmers don't have to ship to Alberta unless they so choose. The goal is up to six regional abattoirs constructed over 5 years, each with capacity for at least 200 head per day.

The SMC will build an oil crushing and bottling factory so that Saskatchewan Canola Oil is made in Saskatchewan. The goal is one canola crushing and bottling facility with capacity of 1 million tonnes annually.

The SMC-Ag flour mills will use local wheat to ensure local wheat makes local flour to make local breads. The goal is two regional flour mills with a combined capacity of 500,000 tonnes annually. The flour mills will be located on major rail lines for easy grain access.

All SMC-Ag facilities will be partnered with the Saskatchewan Agricultural Board (SAB) to ensure local farmers in local pools provide the materials for local production. Saskatchewan will learn to feed itself.

All SMC-Ag facilities will meet CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) standards for interprovincial and international sales.

SaskGrocery will sign long-term purchase agreements for SMC-Ag products, guaranteeing minimum volumes of Saskatchewan flour, canola oil, and processed meat for its retail and wholesale operations.

• See Policy 14 - Food Sovereignty for more.

SMC Nuclear Inc

The SMC will build and operate a uranium conversion facility, SMC-N1, and fuel fabrication plant, SMC-N2, in partnership with the Saskatchewan Natural Resources Corporation (SNRC).

SMC-N facilities will be developed in partnership with SNRC as described in Policy 15 - Resource and Energy Sovereignty, with SMC handling manufacturing operations and SNRC handling resource extraction and strategic oversight, and together ensuring smooth supply chain logistics from one to the other.

SMC-N1 will be converting the yellowcake uranium oxide we already produce into uranium dioxide powder. Then SMC-N2 will fabricate that powder into CANDU fuel bundles.

These facilities will supply SaskPower's new CANDU reactor fleet, with excess capacity available for export to other Canadian utilities so that SMC-N fuel fabrication will serve the Canadian nuclear industry nationally.

As a byproduct of CANDU operations, medical isotope production, particularly Molybdenum-99, will be captured and processed for the global medical imaging market.

All nuclear facilities will meet Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission requirements and operate under federal nuclear licensing with provincial ownership.

SMC-N facilities will be located near existing uranium mining infrastructure in northern Saskatchewan, creating high-wage jobs in the north. Northern facilities will include Indigenous hiring and partnership targets developed in consultation with the relevant Indigenous governing bodies and local communities, including First Nations and Métis governments.

The Funding

The upfront capital for the Saskatchewan Manufacturing Corporation will come from a combination of SaskBonds Manufacturing Series, Crown borrowing, and direct provincial capitalization during the buildout phase.

SMC projects will be launched in stages based on provincial need, construction readiness, secured supply chains, and long-term purchase agreements. Multi-year demand and offtake agreements with public buyers such as SHC, SaskEnergy, SaskPower, SaskGrocery, and other provincial partners will provide the baseline demand needed to support early operations.

During startup and ramp-up, the Province may provide operating support from the General Revenue Fund where required. The long-term objective is for each SMC subsidiary to become operationally self-sustaining through product sales, processing fees, service contracts, supply agreements, and export revenues, with retained earnings reinvested into maintenance, modernization, and expansion.

Heavy-capital projects such as uranium conversion and fuel fabrication will proceed only after updated business cases, federal licensing, supply agreements, and financing plans are complete.

What It Means For You

It means our resources meet our needs.

It means a truly local and strong economy.

It means the dignity of doing it ourselves in Saskatchewan.

FAQ

• What is the Saskatchewan Manufacturing Corporation?
• A new Crown corporation that will build and operate strategic factories in Saskatchewan so the province can manufacture key goods it needs for housing, energy, food processing, and nuclear fuel supply.


• What will the factories produce?
• The SMC will operate through four subsidiaries. SMC Housing will build modular housing components and factory-built homes. SMC Energy will assemble heat pumps, thermal-utility conversion kits, batteries, and other energy hardware. SMC Agriculture will run regional abattoirs, flour mills, and canola crushing and bottling facilities. SMC Nuclear will convert uranium and fabricate CANDU fuel bundles.


• Will these factories replace existing Saskatchewan businesses?
• No. The SMC will not seek to displace Saskatchewan-owned processors that already meet provincial standards and labour requirements. Its role is to fill gaps in strategic processing and manufacturing capacity, not to duplicate what is already working well.


• Will the factories be unionized?
• Yes. All SMC facilities will be unionized workplaces with wages and benefits meeting or exceeding Saskatchewan's new fair labour standards.


• Will these jobs go to Saskatchewan workers?
• Yes. The SMC will prioritize training and hiring Saskatchewan workers, including Saskatchewan Century Corps graduates, apprentices, Energy Veterans transitioning from oil and gas, and workers in communities where facilities are located.


• How many homes can the housing factory produce?
• The goal for SMC-H1 is 5,000 to 10,000 housing units annually, with production ramping up over the first 3 years after groundbreaking. The plant will be designed for continuous operation using staffing models that preserve 30-hour work weeks.


• What is the point of SMC Energy?
• SMC Energy will manufacture the hardware Saskatchewan needs for its thermal-utility transition and grid modernization, including heat pumps, conversion kits, and battery systems, instead of relying entirely on foreign supply chains.


• Will SMC Agriculture force farmers into one system?
• No. SMC Agriculture will work with the Saskatchewan Agricultural Board through voluntary supply arrangements, forward contracts, and stable local purchase agreements so farmers and producer pools have reliable local buyers.


• What is a material passport?
• A digital material passport is a record showing what materials are in a product, where they are used, and how they can be repaired, reused, or safely recycled at the end of the product's life.


• What about nuclear safety?
• All SMC Nuclear facilities will operate under federal nuclear licensing and must meet Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission requirements. Nuclear manufacturing and waste handling will be governed by the full set of applicable federal and provincial safety rules.


• Are these factories supposed to make money?
• The first priority is to build the manufacturing capacity Saskatchewan needs to meet its public goals. During startup and ramp-up, some facilities may require public support. The long-term goal, however, is for each SMC subsidiary to become operationally self-sustaining through sales, service contracts, processing fees, and export revenues.


• How is this funded?
• The SMC will be funded through a combination of provincial capitalization, Crown borrowing, SaskBonds Manufacturing Series, and long-term purchase agreements with public buyers such as SHC, SaskEnergy, SaskPower, and SaskGrocery. Heavy-capital projects will proceed in stages as business cases, licensing, and financing are completed.