The Saskatchewan NDP is calling on the Saskatchewan government to acknowledge the impact that a first production delay at BHP’s Jansen potash mine would have on the provincial economy. 

 On Friday, BHP announced that first production at the mine is now pushed to mid-2027 instead of the end of this year. Sally Housser, Energy and Resources Critic, says the delay could leave what she terms another hole in the government’s  “fantasy budget.” 

“Is this going to mean more cuts, or are we just going to pile on the debt? But what we can’t have them do is continue to come out and spout this fiction that the budget is balanced, when their own numbers say that that’s simply not true.”

She lists previous factors that have impacted the 2025-26 provincial budget thus far, including over projecting the price of oil and scraping the industrial carbon tax. 

“Days after introducing the provincial budget in March, with a projected surplus of just $12 million, the Sask. Party scrapped its industrial tax slush fund, blowing a $34 million hole in their projected revenues. Their own budget projections didn’t even last a full week.”

Housser says the provincial debt is forecast to reach $27.4 billion by March 2029, which represents a 149 per cent increase since Scott Moe took over as Premier.

In response to the NDP’s claims, the Province released a statement saying, “BHP remains committed to building the largest potash mine in world, right here in Saskatchewan, something that never would have happened under the NDP, who drove potash investment out of our province through forced government takeovers of potash mines.”