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The Saskatchewan Industrial and Mining Suppliers Association (SIMSA) held its 2026 AGM today (May 13, 2026). The event featured the election-results of 5 Directors from 17 candidates plus several major news items. Scott Bahr – SIMSA’s Board Chair, Scott Bahr – MC’d the formal AGM portion of the event.
Scott Bahr, SIMSA Board Chair
The election results revealed that the following persons will be on SIMSA’s Board for the next two years:
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- Bryan MacFadden (incumbent), Horizon Engineering & Project Management, Vice President – Business Development & Strategy – Regular member
- Evan Powell, Kelly Panteluk Construction Ltd., General Manager of Projects – Regular member
- June Verhelst (incumbent), Graham, Senior Vice President Operation – Open member
- Shaun Howdle, STC Industrial Group, President & CEO – Regular member
- Tyler Gilchrist, Impact Energy, Director of Operations – Regular member
These persons will join the following persons on the Board:
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- Scott Bahr, Bit Service, Board Chair
- Bobbylynn Stewart, Breck Construction – Board Vice Chair
- Marc Collette, Mine Supply Company
- Curtis Gursky, Fortis Mining
- Andrea Crittenden, Sixten Safety Services
- Jim Wilson, Wil-Tech Industries
- Marlan Ottenbreit, DynaIndustrial
After the formal AGM portion, SIMSA’s Executive Director – Eric Anderson – made several announcements.
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- Member fee changes
- AI search tool update
- Lobbying update
- Energy Forum announcement
- RBC financing program announcement – SIMSA-Fi
- Release of BDO Extended Payment Terms study
- BHP announcement
Member fee changes
SIMSA has not changed it membership fees nor its structure since is inception in 2013. Since that time, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is up 36% into 2026, and will be at 40% in 2027. Further, our top membership category ($20M+) has grown to become the most populated.
And since 2013, SIMSA has added to its member-value:
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- Roundtable events
- Mining Forum premier access
- Creation of the member database with a now AI search feature
- Free access to a nuclear specialist
- A Benefits Plan
- A Liability Insurance Discount program
- Regular sharing of sector news
- Being information conduit to and from buyers
- A powerful voice in Ottawa
- A few more major items today
For SIMSA to continue SIMSA successful delivery of member value, Commencing January 1, 2027
at membership renewals, the membership fee structure will be:
Theses changes reflect about half of the increase in the Consumer Price Index from 2013-2027.
Going forward, SIMSA will then review our fees every 5-years to keep current.
Beta of AI search feature launched
SIMSA announced that a Beta version of an AI search feature, has been added to our member database, which has seen over 150,000 searches to date by BHP alone. We have scraped an indexed your websites into the database and then added over ten-times the search categories. It can now be easily used for defence, nuclear, major projects and other work.
Lobbying update
SIMSA is now a requested voice in Ottawa! Upon request, we submitted a major project procurement whitepaper to several Federal departments and we are now a requested voice to Federal Committees on items such as CUSMA. Per the May SIMSA Newsletter, SIMSA submitted a major project procurement whitepaper to several Federal departments. And earlier this week, we met with the Major Projects and Prime Minister’s Office to secure SIMSA members’ and SIMSA’s role in the upcoming projects. We have met with now dozens of MPs and bureaucrats telling SIMSA’s story.
Eric Anderson presenting on CUSMA to Committee
Energy Forum announcement
The annual Saskatchewan Supplier Energy Forum (SSEF) has recently seen 300 persons attend while the recent Mining Forum has had over 3,000. Both events are co-presented with the Government of Saskatchewan, but the Mining Forum has a producer partner – the Saskatchewan Mining Association – which leverages its members to attend and thus attracts more suppliers with a sold-out tradeshow. So, to build the SSEF, SIMSA approached the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) to become a partner in the event. CAPP agreed.
The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) is a non-partisan, research-based industry association that advocates on behalf of their member companies, large and small, that explore for, develop, and produce oil and natural gas throughout Canada. CAPP’s members produce nearly three quarters of Canada’s annual oil and natural gas production, and their associate members provide a wide range of services that support the upstream industry.
So, commencing in the 2026 SSEF, CAPP will be a Presenting Partner with the plan of growing the event over the coming years.
RBC Financing Program – SIMSA-Fi
SIMSA members are facing growing demand in the mining and energy sectors, but more so face a potential seismic upward growth due to nuclear, defence, and major projects announcements. This growth will require shop expansions and the like.
But, to do this, members will likely require financing and advice.
As such, SIMSA has secured an agreement with RBC for member financing and advisory services under the banner “SIMSA-Fi.”
The core items in the RBC program are:
SIMSA will be hosting a “Lunch & Learn” event on this program in the near future.
BDO Extended Payment Terms Study
Many SIMSA members have expressed deep concerns about the trend towards extended payment terms (terms beyond 30-days). As such, SIMSA contracted BDO to review the impacts.
The study – available HERE – found that most SIMSA members use cash reserves for operations financing, and the net result is a transfer of working-capital pressure from customers to suppliers, impacting liquidity, financing costs, project execution, pricing, and long-term competitiveness. Extended payment terms harm competitiveness, growth and innovation.
It also found that the Membership Category “$10-20M” exhibits high financial exposure driven by larger contracts and complex project structures. And, the impact extends beyond individual firms into the broader supply chain.
As such, extended payment terms are not being absorbed passively, they are actively reshaping business operations. The study revealed:
It further revealed that these extended terms are impacting members’ ability to innovate, grow, retain staff, and:
SIMSA has shared the results with our partner producer companies – such as BHP, Cameco, Mosaic, Nutrien and K+S – and we have commenced a dialogue on what can be done to address these scenarios. Preliminary conversations have been positive.
BHP
We ended the event with BHP and SIMSA are pleased to announce a new initiative: the Supply Chain Ready program. This program will provide practical guidance through targeted webinars on key topics, helping suppliers better understand BHP’s expectations, processes, and opportunities. By strengthening knowledge and readiness, the initiative aims to support stronger engagement and long-term success for local suppliers as BHP moves toward operations. Additional details will be shared closer to the program launch later this summer.
Christina Aabye – Head of Commercial, Potash, BHP
About SIMSA
SIMSA represents over 390 member companies in the energy, mining, industrial, and defence sectors with a permanent physical office in Saskatchewan. This membership includes over 36,000 employees in our province with over $18 billion in annual sales attributable to their Saskatchewan operations. We are the voice of the Saskatchewan supply chain and are arguably the third largest city in the province.