SASKATOON —The two year long hiatus on the Saskatchewan government’s auctioning of Crown land will not be lifted after all.
The government confirmed that the Ministry of Agriculture is pausing the auction of parcels of vacant Crown land, which was scheduled to run from Oct. 7 to 28.
Premier Scott Moe confirmed the decision last Friday at a school grand opening in Saskatoon.
“It's still on pause. There won't be an auction that will be moving forward,” Moe told reporters.
“What had happened is we had done a two-year pause on the auctioning of vacant Crown land, and that did find its way through the duty to consult process. As we took some time to do what was, I believe, a five-year update to our duty to consult process, once that update was complete, automatically some of the auctions started to move forward.
"This is a case where we got a little bit ahead of ourselves in that process starting again. So we had a meeting here just this past week. The pause is going to continue and continue indefinitely.”
In a statement from the province, they said the ag ministry “will review other approaches to ensure the vacant Crown land is used for productive purposes.”
The parcels that had identified for auction were lands that were previously leased agricultural land where leases have been surrendered or cancelled. According to the province, the intent of the sale was to allow the land to be used for agricultural purposes, and the parcels identified are a small portion of total Crown land holdings in Saskatchewan.
The province says in a statement that as a next step, the ministry will consider other ways to address the use of vacant Crown land, including leasing suitable parcels and in some cases short-term permitting. They add that the decision to pause the sale of Crown land in this fall's auction does not constitute a change in overall government direction as it relates to Crown land management.
The NDP’s First Nations and Métis Affairs Critic Leroy Laliberte issued a statement on the news of the pause, and credited pressure, in part, from his own party for the decision.
“According to reports, the Sask. Party has temporarily paused the sale of crown land scheduled for later this month after sustained pressure from the Saskatchewan NDP, Indigenous leaders, cattle producers and hunters. This is public land held in trust for all residents and our future generations, and since forming government the Sask. Party has already sold off 1.2 million acres for fast cash.”
