New Century Party

The Xanatos Gambit

A Xanatos Gambit is a plan where every possible outcome benefits the planner. If opponents resist, they lose. If they comply, you win. If they do nothing, you still advance. It is not magic. It is strategy.

The Saskatchewan 21 Policies are not twenty-one disconnected promises. They are an interlocking reconstruction program. Each policy creates a fork, and each fork moves Saskatchewan toward greater public capacity, greater public ownership, and less dependence.

Policy 01

THE FOUNDATION:
HUMAN DIGNITY

Everything starts with Human Dignity.

Policy 01 is the legal and moral anchor for the rest of the platform. If the Government of Saskatchewan has a primary duty to respect, protect, and uphold Human Dignity, then housing, food, health care, labour standards, energy security, disability supports, reconciliation, and democratic renewal are not optional side projects. They become obligations of government.

Policy 13

The Redwater Strategy

This is not the platform’s piggy bank. It is the first pressure point.

The immediate move is to end fossil fuel subsidies, raise the Liability Management Ratio to 2.0, and require cash cleanup bonds from operators below that threshold. No promises. No accounting tricks. Cold. Hard. Cash.

This creates the first fork.

Fork A: They Pay

If the oil majors post the required cleanup bonds, Saskatchewan proves the liabilities were real all along, future cleanup is no longer quietly socialized onto the public, and the province gains a stronger bargaining position over the sunset and cleanup of the industry.


The bond principal remains tied to remediation. It is not free transformation capital. But the political and regulatory terrain changes immediately.


Any interest earned on those large cleanup-bond holdings can still be remitted into the Saskatchewan Sovereignty Fund, creating a modest long-run public return without pretending the trust itself is free cash.

Fork B: They Refuse

If they cannot or will not post the bond, the operators are saying upfront that they cannot meet their statutory environmental obligations. That strengthens the case for suspensions, tighter operating conditions, and, where necessary, provincial receivership or temporary provincial operation through the Saskatchewan Natural Resources Corporation as operator of last resort.


This is not a fantasy expropriation story. It is a managed public-interest response to companies admitting they cannot afford the mess attached to their own business model.

What The Fork Is Really For

Either way, the era of free, so-called externalities is over.

  • If they pay, the province gets secured remediation, remitted interest into the SSF, and a stronger hand.
  • If they refuse, the province gains the legal and political mandate to tighten control and accelerate a managed sunset.
  • If they litigate, they have to explain why the public should continue underwriting liabilities they cannot carry themselves.

The strategic point is that every branch weakens the old fossil model and strengthens Saskatchewan’s case for transition.

Saskatchewan moves forward.

Policies 10 & 11

THE WORKER LANE

A managed sunset only works
if workers are carried through it with dignity and respect


Policy 10 tells fossil fuel workers that the province is not throwing them away.


Policy 11 gives the province the institutional machinery to actually use their skills.


The Century Corps becomes the merge lane. It is not make-work. It is a permanent workforce and training instrument that can be pointed at housing, resilience, energy, transit, and industrial buildout.


The Energy Veterans policy creates three pathways: retire with honour, retrain with wage protection and family supports, or redeploy into Saskatchewan’s next buildout.

Three Pathways Out

Retire

Retire with honour, a direct bonus, debt protection, and a pension bridge that respects a lifetime of work.

Retrain

Retrain with wage protection, family supports, and a direct route into the next buildout.

Redeploy

Redeploy into Saskatchewan’s next economy through public placements, union labour, and permanent institutional demand.

This denies opponents their cleanest line of attack: that transition is abandonment.


These are not side programs. They are workforce prerequisites for Policies 05, 06, 15, 19, and 20.

Saskatchewan keeps the people it needs to build the future.

Policy 04

The Indigenous Partnership

The S21P does not work without real Indigenous partnership. That is not a moral add-on. It is structural.

Policy 04 is meant to replace the old colonial pattern of extract first, consult later, litigate forever. The platform instead proposes consent protocols, capacity funding, co-governance, and real material participation in ownership and decision-making.

This changes the strategic map in three ways: it builds legitimacy from mutual respect, makes Saskatchewan’s future buildout harder to isolate as a simple province-versus-community fight, and improves project certainty when the partnership is real.

This is the key caution: this is not a shield that can be faked. If the partnership is cynical, the whole thing collapses. If it is real, it becomes one of the platform’s strongest force multipliers.

If the partnership is real, Saskatchewan becomes stronger, steadier, and harder to stop.

Policy 15

THE OWNERSHIP TURN

Policy 15 is where the platform stops asking Saskatchewan to be content with royalties alone.

For new major or significantly expanded resource projects, Saskatchewan and the Treaty Nations Resource Trust will no longer merely ask for consultation and meagre percentages of profit. Together we will take permanent equity ownership positions.

33.3%

Province of Saskatchewan

A permanent working interest, with a veto, so the public interest is always at the table.

33.3%

Treaty Nations Resource Trust

A permanent working interest, with a veto, so Indigenous ownership is real, financed, and durable.

33.3%

Private Corporation

A one-third stake without veto power. A valued partner, but not the ruler of Saskatchewan’s resource future.

If private capital accepts this trilateral model, the project stops being a battle and starts being a partnership where everyone gets something durable.

And if private capital refuses? The Province can split ownership 50/50 with the Treaty Nations Resource Trust and hire contractors alongside the Saskatchewan Natural Resources Corporations (SNRC) to do the work private capital refuses.

We aren’t asking drillers to code. We are asking them to keep drilling — but for geothermal boreholes instead of oil wells. Keep welding — but for CANDU reactor piping instead of pipelines. Same skills. More security. And they get to sleep in their own beds at the end of the day.

Either way, Saskatchewan keeps control of its own resources and its own future.

Policy 15

The Nuclear Vertical

Saskatchewan has world-class uranium, and a great deal of it. Under the current model, we ship yellowcake out cheaply for other jurisdictions to refine, then buy finished value back at far higher margins.

The S21P is built to break that pattern through the Value-Add Levy, the SNRC, SaskPower’s nuclear expansion, and the manufacturing buildout under Policy 19.

The point is not to pretend Saskatchewan becomes a nuclear superpower overnight. The point, over time, is to move the province up the value chain: more processing, more fuel fabrication, more public revenue, more skilled jobs, more leverage over pricing and procurement, and less raw export dependence.

If uranium prices rise, if verticalization succeeds, and if power exports scale, the upside is enormous. To be clear, that upside is not in the hard base case of the financial models.

When Saskatchewan builds out its own large fleet of CANDU reactors, we will secure a long-run domestic power base with far less exposure to global energy volatility. And as that fleet grows, Saskatchewan can become a major low-cost medical isotope producer, expand global supply, and improve access to critical diagnostics and treatment.

Saskatchewan moves from shipping raw value out to building lasting power at home.

Policy 19

THE BUILD MACHINE

Policy 19 and its Saskatchewan Manufacturing Corporation (SMC) is what turns the rest of the platform from aspiration into procurement.

SMC-H1

Housing

A prefab modular housing factory operating 24/7 to build SaskHomes modules for 100,000 public housing units.

SMC-E1

Energy

Assembles heat pumps and other hardware for SaskEnergy’s thermal utility conversion, the Virtual Power Plant, and grid-scale batteries.

SMC-Ag

Agriculture

Regional abattoirs, flour mills, and canola crushing so Saskatchewan stops shipping raw food value out and buying it back finished.

SMC-N

Nuclear

Uranium conversion and fuel fabrication facilities in northern Saskatchewan, built in partnership with the SNRC and local Indigenous communities.

The SMC exists so the province can build for its own needs, its own way, retaining its own value. We cannot wait at the back of the line for foreign supply chains to catch up.

The province becomes its own anchor customer. That is the point.

Saskatchewan builds its own destiny.

Policies 02, 03, 05 & 12

THE HOUSEHOLD

The S21P does not only build assets. It pours a new foundation beneath our households.

02

Social Security

A targeted, unified Saskatchewan Social Security system built for the people whose budgets are most crushed.

05

Housing

Lower rent burdens now, then replace an extractive housing market with a public housing system the province and its people actually own.

03

Health

First lower, then eliminate, private care insecurity by finishing Saskatchewan's promise of truly universal care.

12

Lifelong Learning

Rebuild schools, early learning, training, and post-secondary systems that provide the rungs in the ladder of social mobility.

These policies are expensive, yes. They also make living easier. We think ordinary people are worth that investment.


Lower rent, better income supports, lower care insecurity, stronger schools, better transit, and lower utility costs change how much money households have left after survival. That strengthens local demand, reduces arrears, and makes the province easier to live in and easier to govern.


Saskatchewan is stronger when its people can finally take a breath.

Policies 06, 14 & 20

21st Century Communities

We will plant roots that bridge us together.

Policy 06 rebuilds the connective tissue of our communities: thermal utility transition through SaskEnergy, full fibre buildout through SaskTel, coordinated municipal upgrades, and the return of the Saskatchewan Transport Company as a freight-and-passenger connector.

Policy 14 rebuilds the food chain for the public and hands the keys back to our farmers through the Saskatchewan Agriculture Board, SaskGrocery, and the Farmer Right to Repair Act.

Policy 20 hardens the province against smoke, flood, heat, outage, and other recurring disasters that are no longer the exception but the norm. Our most needed institutions will have islandable power. Our communities will have a place to go when the world turns against them.

These are not glamorous side policies. They are what make the rest of the system less fragile.

Saskatchewan communities become more connected, resilient, and united.

Policies 17 & 21

THE FINANCIAL ARCHITECTURE

Policy 17 creates the Saskatchewan Financial Group and the Saskatchewan Sovereignty Fund. Policy 21 does the harder work of admitting what the platform costs and how it is financed.

The Fund

Saskatchewan Sovereignty Fund (SSF)

An intergenerational endowment that exists to preserve and compound public wealth over time. From resource royalties, the SSF will receive 10% of all revenues collected by the new base royalty rate, and then 25% of any revenues collected from the new Windfall Levy. From Crown corporations, the SSF will receive 5% of all dividends.


It should have been built in the boom years. The second-best time is now.

The Depository

Saskatchewan Financial Group (SFG)

A public treasury and depository institution that brings the province’s operating float home, reduces needless leakage, and uses Saskatchewan’s own public cash to strengthen Saskatchewan’s own financial system.


Today, Saskatchewan cash funds Bay Street lending and Toronto condos. Under the SFG, that same float is used here to backstop and fund Saskatchewan's credit unions so they can compete harder, lend more, and keep value in-province.

If the banks or ratings agencies decide to punish Saskatchewan for retaining more of its own cash and building more of its own public financial architecture, then the slow transition becomes a faster one. That is not instability. That is leverage.

It is not Mutually Assured Destruction.
It is Mutually Assured Dignity.

The Hard Fiscal Truth

Decades of intentional underfunding will take decades to fix.

$181.89B Direct-capital base-case cost over 25 years.

$134.67B Debt-service-adjusted cash burden inside the first 25 years.

2053 Moderate balance path annual return to balance.

2042 Transformation path annual return to balance.

Under the moderate balance path in the debt-service model, annual balance returns around 2053.

Under the transformation path, annual balance returns around 2042.

That is not instant closure. It is a reconstruction timeline.

Saskatchewan wealth will finally be used to for long term Saskatchewan prosperity.

What Happens If...

The Markets Push Back?

Then Saskatchewan will continue forward, decisively.

If credit rating agencies or outside finance punish Saskatchewan for building public assets, reducing private veto power, and retaining its own public value, the government will answer with discipline, not denial.

  • Stage major capital commitments.
  • Separate productive debt from routine operating deficits.
  • Keep hard reporting between GRF spending, Crown borrowing, rate-backed recovery, and endowment architecture.
  • Use the SFG to retain more provincial cash and support local financial infrastructure.
  • Keep expanding the share of the platform backed by real assets, real rents, real rates, real power revenues, and real retained earnings.

If the market pushes back, the answer will not be surrender. It will be better structure.

The NCP is confident that markets ultimately prefer durable assets, real demand, and clear public purpose over further drift, decay, and decline.

What Happens If...

Corporations Threaten To Leave?

Then the NCP opens the door for them on their way out. However, the keys, the building, the assets, and the workers will be staying.

Through Policy 08, the Saskatchewan Co-operative Development Agency and the worker first-refusal regime, any business that wishes to close, relocate, or sell must first grant their employees an 180-day exclusivity window to purchase the business and turn it into a worker-owned co-operative.

If capital leaves, it cannot automatically take the assets, the jobs, the business knowledge, and the local demand with it.

Corporations are guests in our communities, not their rulers.

The S21P is built to remind them:

  • The province can and will procure around you.
  • The workers can and will buy around you.
  • The public can and will finance around you.
  • The market you served can and will exist without you.

The leverage is with the people. It always has been. And they would do well to remember that.

What Happens If...

Ottawa Interferes?

Then they better be ready to take off the mask.

Ottawa likes to present a friendly face, but they would have to reveal it as a facade should they fight against a province that is actively choosing to end the housing crisis, build resilient and affordable food systems, provide truly universal health care, build stable, clean, and abundant energy, and create jobs on a scale Saskatchewan has not seen in generations.

Ottawa can interfere. Courts can constrain. Trade fights can happen. But the politics of interference become harder when the province is visibly building homes, food systems, care, energy, and jobs rather than merely posturing.

This platform is only possible with the express consent and co-development of the Indigenous peoples and nations of this province. If Ottawa objects, they can explain to Canadians and to the world why they are obstructing a program built with Indigenous consent, co-development, and rights they claim to respect.

The S21P is strongest when it forces opponents to explain not only what they oppose, but what they would leave Saskatchewan without instead.

Every Outcome

ADVANCES THE PLATFORM

If the oil companies pay their bonds? The wells get cleaned. We win.
If the oil companies refuse? They forfeit their assets. We win.
If the oil companies accept the new licenses? We get a managed sunset. We win.
If the oil companies up and leave? They explain the gas crisis. We operate as a last resort. We win.
If Ottawa cooperates? We implement freely. We win.
If Ottawa interferes? They fight Indigenous Title and lose. We win.
If Ottawa legislates against us? They create an unwinnable constitutional crisis, and will have to negotiate anyway. We win.
If corporations and capital flee? Workers buy the businesses and keep the assets. We win.
If credit agencies downgrade us? We have our own financial system. We win.
If the lawsuit succeeds? Trillions into the Sovereignty Fund. We win.
If the lawsuit fails? The regulatory measures and the bonds still stand. We win.
If the NCP loses the election? The ideas are already out there. No going back. We win.

That is the Xanatos Gambit.

Legal Foundation

Research and Strategic Notes

Redwater (2019)

The key case for the principle that environmental obligations are not ordinary debts to be discarded in bankruptcy.

Tsilhqot’in (2014) and Related Title Jurisprudence

Important to the politics and law of real partnership, but not a substitute for it and not an automatic shield.

Yahey (2021)

Useful for cumulative-effects reasoning and Treaty-rights harm, especially where environmental degradation and development pressure intersect.

The NRTA, Trade Fights, and Credit Conditions

Provincial resource jurisdiction remains central, but trade-law conflicts, debt-service terms, and financing conditions must be treated as live strategic fights, not assumed away.

Important Note

ON RECONCILIATION

This must be said clearly, and repeated often.

The S21P is not a plan imposed on Treaty Nations.

It is an invitation to co-govern as equals, as two Sovereigns walking forward together.

The Consent Protocol and the Saskatchewan UNDRIP Implementation Act are not simply tools to be used by the NCP. They are a genuine commitment to shared governance and a shared future.

The only way to survive the 21st century is together.

You cannot fake this. It only works if the partnership is real.

Join the Movement

Each Fork
Leads To A
Better Future

Read the full platform, challenge the logic, and help build a Saskatchewan that is stronger, steadier, and ready for the century ahead.

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