REGINA — The Sask Party government was rejecting Opposition accusations this week that they are about to privatize SaskPower.
The NDP’s SaskPower critic Aleana Young was raising the spectre of privatization after the release by the province on Monday of the Saskatchewan First Energy Security Strategy and Supply Plan, which included commitments to nuclear power as well as extending coal-fired plants.
What had Young concerned was the line in the report stating that the province would conduct a “governance review to determine the optimal provincial structure and mandate of nuclear power ownership, operation, and deployment within and beyond the provincial electrical grid.”
In speaking to reporters Oct. 23 at the legislature, she claimed this meant privatization.
“We saw the report on SaskPower and right there on page 7 is a commitment to review the ownership of power generation here in Saskatchewan,” said Young.
“We know conservative governments in Saskatchewan have been flirting with the idea of selling power since the 80s. It was a bad idea then, it’s a terrible idea now. Energy security in Saskatchewan is job security for people here, it’s critical for our economic future, and I don’t think this is hyperbole. This isn’t the government of Saskatchewan whispering about privatization, the Sask Party party has it in black-and-white on page 7 of their own report that they are looking at the ownership and governance of SaskPower’s generation for the Crown and its subsidiaries, and I think this is a huge huge concern for Saskatchewan and deserves significant public attention.”
When asked about the NDP’s criticisms Thursday, Premier Moe denied the government was going to privatize SaskPower.
“No, we’re not of any intent of privatizing any Crowns of any sort,” Moe said.
However, on the mention of a governance review Moe told reporters that statement was there to look at a responsible way for the province to take the next steps into the nuclear power sphere.
“I think it would be irresponsible to not have a look when you’re making decisions around and committing to moving forward to a nuclear future for all the right reasons.
“We have uranium here, we have uranium mining companies that are responsibly mining that product and contributing back to northern, and Saskatchewan communities here are now involved in the nuclear world. The lowering of emissions that that could bring, ultimately bringing our electricity sector to a net zero point sooner rather than later, or certainly by 2050. It would only be responsible for us to look at the regulatory environment, the governance environment, all of those things, moving into this space. Looking at other jurisdictions like Ontario that have had nuclear power for some period of time, as well as other jurisdictions around the world of which we have those connections, which was shown at the most recent CNA (Canadian Nuclear Association) conference in Saskatoon.”
Moe added they are “not selling SaskPower, we are not selling the major Crown corporations at any time, nor have we ever discussed it. The NDP may have discussed it, we have not, nor will it.”
Premier Moe did acknowledge to reporters, however, that an SMR could be owned privately, or publicly.
“It could be either. We do both now — we have natural gas… We have natural gas plants today that are owned by SaskPower, we have natural gas plants where we just simply buy the power from. Largely the renewable sector is not owned by SaskPower, it’s owned by private entities and we do a power purchase agreement.”
Moe said the government would do “what is in the best interest of Saskatchewan people. There could be partnerships with First Nations communities or Indigenous people through our Indigenous finance corporation. There could be partnerships with data centres that are not just creating jobs for the data centre, but actually bringing in services in the cyber security space, the AI technology.”
“So it’s too early to say what that would look like and who the partners might be, but I think it’s important for us, maybe through Sask Nuclear and our others, to have those conversations over the next years on what is best and what is in the best interest of Saskatchewan people.”
