REGINA — Opposition politicians continue to step up attacks on the Sask. Party government for its handling of SaskPower, as they now point to a bigger deficit for the Crown utility than expected.
At a media scrum Thursday outside the legislature, NDP critic for SaskPower Aleana Young pointed to a new, more than 100-page document released this week to the Saskatchewan Rate Review Panel, which she said reports SaskPower's deficit as being an additional $40 million higher than previously stated.
The net loss posted by Sask Power in that document was $187 million, up from $147 million.
“Clearly what we're dealing with here is a Premier and a government that will do everything in their power to hide, to obfuscate, to lie and to cheat and withhold information from the people of Saskatchewan,” Young said.
Young again blasted the government’s plan to extend coal, again claiming the cost will be $26 billion. The government has said $2.6 billion for capital. Young accused Premier Scott Moe and Minister for Crown Investments Corporation Jeremy Harrison of “deficit accountability at every turn.”
Young also had further words about the Saskatchewan Rate Review Panel consultations on SaskPower’s application for a 3.9 per cent rate increase in 2026 and 2027, which has a deadline for submissions of this Friday.
Young said she was maintaining her call for the Rate Review Panel to restart the entire consultation process all over again, as “it has been conducted under what can be described as a cloud of lies at worst and at best nothing but a slew of political omissions when it comes to the facts and figures relevant for the Rate Review Panel to do their job.”
In speaking to reporters, Young said that every time SaskPower has provided public information on its finances, “it's another drop.”
“This is a Crown that's seen a $400 million dollar drop in net income over the past two years, that's seen their debt increase by 45 per cent, and now is staring down the barrel of a politically orchestrated $26 billion dollar commitment for just 24 per cent of our generation.“
She also questioned SaskPower claiming it will turn things around and see a “swing back into the green.”
“Frankly we've seen this story before quarter after quarter, and I draw everyone's attention to the fact that they're still not accounting for the OBPS, the industrial carbon tax, which is based on last year's numbers a $385 million dollar hit to the Crown. Scott Moe has said this is coming back. Minister of Environment Darlene Rowden has said this is coming back. Seemingly the only people who are refusing to live in the Sask. Party's reality are the poor SaskPower officials being managed by Jeremy Harrison.”
She said the new documents showing the additional $40 million loss “underscores with a bullet the need for this entire Rate Review process to be scrapped and started over.”
Young also called for an independent regulator for SaskPower, saying the Rate Review Panel can “only work with the parameters and the information given to them by a government who is determined to do what they want when they want, regardless of the impact that it has on the Crown or on families, farms or small businesses across Saskatchewan."
Government responds
In a statement from the government, it was noted that the $187 million loss was previously reported in page 73 of the 2026-27 Provincial Budget and is not new information.
The government stated said that in SaskPower’s mid-application update, the company’s forecasted net loss increased from $147 million to $187 million, and was driven largely by a decrease in Saskatchewan electricity sales and an increase in fuel and power purchase costs. They add that the initial forecast of $147 million was based on the data SaskPower had available at the end of the second-quarter, which ended Sept. 30, ahead of the rate application being filed in early January.
"It is not uncommon for a power sales forecast to fluctuate due to a number of factors, including weather and commercial activity," they stated.
It was also noted that SaskPower’s 2025-26 Saskatchewan electricity sales forecast haddecreased by $33 million in the Q3 numbers reflected in the mid-mpplication update, which the government said is largely driven by decreases in power sales to commercial customers.
Overall, the government said in their statement, SaskPower’s mid-application update showed a $59 million increase in net income for the 2026-2027 fiscal year compared to what was submitted in the initial rate application. The government said the net impact is SaskPower is now forecasting a $19 million improvement in earnings over the two-year rate application period.
As for their move to remove the federal carbon tax from SaskPower bills last year, the government point out that customers were provided customers with an immediate 11 per cent rate decrease; they also point out the Government of Saskatchewan does not owe or pay any federal carbon tax on electricity to the Government of Canada.
