REGINA – The Official Opposition is raising concerns that power bill hikes are coming after approval of an additional $1 million in supplementary expenses including $813 million to SaskPower.
The supplementary expense was approved at the Crown and Central Agencies committee meeting on Tuesday in a statutory, and the estimates were approved in the Legislature Wednesday afternoon by a 32-22 vote. But it was the expense for SaskPower that had the Opposition particularly animated.
At a news conference Wednesday at the Legislature, Opposition critic for Sask Power Aleana Young told reporters that money “comes from one place — the taxpayers of Saskatchewan.”
“And what does this mean? This means that every time people in this province buy groceries, fill up their tank, turn on their lights they are going to be paying for this billion dollars of public money. The Sask Party’s losses are ultimately going to come from the people of Saskatchewan, it’s going to cost them money in the form of a power rate hike.”
The NDP particularly voiced outrage about what happened at the Crown and Central Agencies meeting the previous night, pointing out that Minister for Crown Investments Corporation and for Sask Power, Jeremy Harrison, was a no-show.
Young claimed Harrison’s non-appearance was “unprecedented.” She also said Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance Jim Reiter was at the committee for about 15 minutes and then left, saying that he “refused to stay and answer questions on behalf of this government on behalf of CIC minister Harrison, who again didn’t bother to show up at all.”
The NDP accused the Sask Party of using their majority on the committee to refuse their motions to reschedule the meeting to a time when Harrison could attend. A motion by Young that the privilege of all members had been breached because of Harrison’s non-attendance also was voted down at committee. The Opposition Whip also filed a privilege complaint with Speaker Todd Goudy on the same issue but the Speaker concluded the question of privilege was not well taken.
In a statement issued right before Young’s news conference, the government took issue with Young’s characterization of Harrison’s absence.
“While the NDP are calling it unprecedented for the Minister not to appear before committee, the reality is that this is regular procedure, as Ministers are not required to attend supplementary estimates for statutory amounts,” their statement read.
They pointed as an example to “the exact same vote (Vote 152)” at the Crown and Central Agencies committee meeting on Dec. 5, 2022. “No Minister appeared before committee as the vote was statutory… Today, the lost and reckless NDP are once again demonstrating that they do not understand the rules of the Legislative Assembly.”
In speaking to reporters Wednesday, Minister Harrison explained further why he was not at the committee meeting, and also explained the process of how the supplementary estimates were approved. They were approved by what is called a statutory vote, meaning those items are automatically approved by statute and do not require a formal committee vote.
“So, the appropriation for, or the forecast for SaskPower, it’s a statutory vote, and I think I was pretty clear about how that all works. A statutory vote is not a votable vote at committee,” said Harrison.
“It never has been a votable measure at committee. So statutory estimates, statutory appropriations, what is the purpose of those estimates is to grant supply to the government for expenditures that were not budgeted for in the main estimate. So, that’s actually the purpose. So statutory appropriations, like from Sask Power, are granted supply through votes of the Legislative Assembly by statute. So, that was the reason the Minister has never appeared for a vote…in supplementary estimates for a statutory vote.”
Harrison said this was important to clarify because “the Opposition were in there and outside saying somehow this is unprecedented. What’s unprecedented is the Opposition demanding a Minister appear for a statutory budget appropriation.”
“And, you know, frankly, it’s been, it’s a bit troubling. And I went on the record in the Chamber to clarify exactly how that all worked. There was a question of privilege that was raised by the Opposition as well, which was thrown out by the Speaker, by the way, because it wasn’t appropriately brought. The issue had been decided at Committee as far as the main matter. And that’s why I made some extensive comments on the record in the Chamber about the process.”
As for where the $1 billion in supplementary expense money is going, Harrison said “we’ve been very transparent about all of this.” He pointed to $194 million coming off of the industrial carbon tax taken off of the Sask Power bills, which was part of what was approved.
On the amount for Sask Power, Harrison pointed to their previous announcement of “significant new investments into transmission and connecting our northern and southern power grids” which are currently not connected.He called connecting the grids vitally important for the development of northern Saskatchewan.
“That is going to be an investment of probably $800 million, which is not an insignificant investment from Sask Power. Are there investments being made, both on the affordability and reliability front, which are central to our energy security strategy? Absolutely, there are. We’re going to make those investments, and we’re not going to apologize for them.”
