REGINA – Despite some obvious global challenges, a spirit of optimism prevailed among those attending the Food, Fuel and Fertilizer Global Summit on April 21 and 22.
Contributing to that prevailing mood at that summit in Regina was the keynote speech by Premier Scott Moe in the morning of April 21, followed soon after by Moe’s one-on-one fireside chat with Cameco CEO Tim Gitzel.
Cameco and the province are still basking in the success of the province’s recent trade mission to India in March, where Cameco signed a nine-year, $2.6 billion deal to sell 22 million pounds of uranium to that country.
The deal marked a milestone in the turnaround in relations between Canada and India. Gitzel told the story of how this latest deal emerged, going back to the previous one in April 2015 in Ottawa.
“Brad [Wall] was with us, we had Prime Minister [Stephen] Harper was there, and Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi came over, 2015 this is, that was in the Parliament buildings, and we signed our first agreement. it was for a million pounds, so a smaller contract but with the Indians, and they wanted to carry it on.
“So 2019-20 we started renegotiating to extend, and the relations between India and Canada fell off the table. They just, for a lot of reasons, you know them, I don't have to recite what they are. It had to do with a certain person, mostly, and the relations at the top levels.
"So we had to wait, we waited, waited, waited… and all through that, you kept going to India and saying we're still here, we're still here, we're still ready to go,” said Gitzel.
Then finally came the signing of the deal in March.
“I have to tell you as a Canadian, it was a super proud moment for me. So you might see a picture of premier and I standing there with the high commissioner of India, holding these agreements, Modi and [Prime Minister Mark] Carney behind me, behind us. And I just, like I'm from Meadow Lake, what am I doing here, for one thing.
“But second, that's how Canada should work … where we're working together, we all do our thing. We needed the Canadian government to kind of break the ice, the provincial government, the premier stood shoulder to shoulder with us, and the Indians came on board. That’s a $3 billion dollar contract that's going to run for nine years, and I can tell you we could have sold them three times that much… they want to go from eight gigawatts to 100 in the next 20 years."
Moe, in his address that morning, paid tribute to Cameco for their deal with India.
“And I think it's important for us to realize, to 2015 to 2020, we did have a nuclear co-operation agreement with India. We were shipping uranium from Saskatchewan to India during that period of time,” said Moe.
“We had started working on renewing that agreement prior to 2020, and finally Cameco was able to bring that home with what was not only a replacement of the original agreement, but was an agreement that was twice in long as its length and was about triple the size. A close to $3 billion nuclear supply agreement between Cameco and the government in India, and it was a significant step forward. And congratulations, Tim, to you and through you to everyone that is part of that agreement with Cameco, but everyone that is employed at Cameco and ensuring that Cameco continues to be the great company and the great steward that it is in this province.”
Years of change for Cameco
The current good times for Cameco were a far cry from the dark days of low uranium prices the last decade, resulting in massive layoffs.
"We were in tough shape,” Gitzel told the audience. “I think we, we let go 2,500 people, in northern Saskatchewan and Saskatoon, and it was brutal.”
He said they did it because “we had to hang on to the company… and we were hanging on, hanging on, but we believed, and we believed there would be better days ahead, and we had to make those decisions.”
After COVID-19 in 2020, 2021 and 2022, Gitzel said you “started seeing moves, electrification, decarbonization, climate change, climate crisis, climate disaster, race to net zero. You remember, we don't talk about that much anymore, but that's what really gave us some impetus to start going.”
Then came the Russian invasion into Ukraine, where people became concerned about energy security. Then came Cameco’s presence at COP28 in Dubai, a conference that Gitzel admitted he previously “really didn't have much time for, because they didn't — they never talked about nuclear at all. it was always everything else.”
But at COP28, nuclear was a big focus.
“We set up a booth there, and we put a big show on. They invited us in for nuclear, and I can tell you, the rooms were packed, they were standing outside of the rooms on nuclear. And it's where the world really came to realize that they wanted to — there was 30 countries and 120 companies signed the pledge to triple nuclear power by 2050.
”Wow. I mean, we'd been shutting down everything before that, and that was really the impetus, and I can tell you, since then, I mean, it's gotten even more. So you've got the AI phenomenon that's going on around the world. Like electricity demands to double in the next 20 years.”
Gitzel then turned towards SaskPower CEO Rupen Pandya and said, “everything you've got running now, you better keep it going, and then double it again. That's just an example, and I can tell you, around the world, it's the same story.”
Gitzel spoke about other developments in the uranium and nuclear space, including their deal two years ago for Westinghouse.
“We want to be more, we want to be more than just nuclear fuel,” Gitzel told the audience.
“Westinghouse came available, an American technology company, and I can tell you, I can name you 20 Canadian companies that have been sold to the Americans, Inco, Noranda, Falconbridge, Nexen — this one was the other way. We said, you know what, it was $8 billion US, and we said, are we going to go for it or not. So we put all our chips in the middle of the table and said, OK, let's go, do we believe in what we're doing or not, and we did.”
That purchase happened two years ago, and what happened on the world scene seemed to vindicate that decision.
“I mean, things just kind of went in our favour,” Gitzel said about the global market’s response to nuclear energy.
“It went from climate security to energy security, now national security. Like people are looking: where does your gas come from? it comes on a ship through the Strait of Hormuz from Qatar. Okay, that's not very good. It comes through a pipe from Russia; well, that's not very good either. Nuclear… you can put 10 years of fuel at your nuclear plant, and you're really self-sufficient, you don't have to worry about what world markets do.”
All in all, Gitzel was bullish about what the future held for Cameco and for Saskatchewan.
“Well, like I said, I'm proud to be a Saskatchewan person,” Gitzel said. “I was born here, and they'll put me somewhere hopefully at the right time, but I'll stay here forever. You know what, I see just endless possibility for us now…
“We are going to be busy folks for the next decades, whether it be in the mining industry or whether it be in high tech, that's moving along. Ag, obviously, has been our foundation forever, but get ready. I think our biggest problem is we're going to be tight labour, maybe, and we're going to need some more people, so invite your friends to come because we're going to need a lot more, but this province, the sun is shining on this province today. It's going to shine on us for decades to come, so keep it going everybody. Keep it going. We're going to have a good run.”
