REGINA — As the final week of the current Legislature session gets underway, the focus of the parties has shifted to the cost of extending coal-fired generation in the province.
In particular, the Opposition NDP has gone on the offensive against the government’s plans to extend coal to 2050, claiming it would cost $26 billion — not $2.6 billion as the government had claimed.
On May 6, in a news release, the NDP pointed to a leaked slide from an earlier SaskPower presentation that broke down the coal plan as having $11.4 billion in capital costs, $13 billion in fuel costs and $1.4 billion to rebuild transmission infrastructure.
“This is no longer a bad news budget — it’s a full-blown catastrophe,” said Opposition Leader Carla Beck in a statement. “This is a premier and a minister that plan to sink Saskatchewan in generational debt.”
The following day, Minister for Crown Investments Corporation Jeremy Harrison accused the NDP of misrepresenting the figures.
“$2.6 billion is the capital cost estimated for the entire repowering initiative. That's what we have been planning from,” Harrison told reporters.
He characterized what the NDP had presented as “completely dishonest with regard to the capital cost being $26 billion.”
Harrison said what the province had included as part of that $26 billion were “25-year costs for maintenance, for sustainment, for operating, for salaries, for mining, for fuel, for transmission, including for upgrading and sustaining the transmission. These would be costs incurred regardless of the power generation method, whether that was gas or any other method. The capital cost for the repowering is $2.6 billion. So we've been very, very transparent about that.”
Harrison said their plan had been released back in October in the Energy Security Strategy. He said it takes an all-of-the-above approach to power generation, but “really prioritizes energy security, using Saskatchewan resources to produce power for the Saskatchewan public. So that includes coal, that includes gas, that includes hydro, that includes renewables and I've announced four renewable projects since I've been minister. That includes biomass, all of which is intended to transition to baseload nuclear power generation here in this province, which we've also released our plan for.”
Harrison added that if the NDP were being forthright, replacing 1,500 megawatts of coal-fired power generation “would mean four more Aspen power stations. And both President (Rupen) Pandya and I cited this in committee the other night.”
He compared the NDP’s approach to the price of buying a vehicle. Using the opposition’s method, he said, meant also having to account for fuel, oil changes, car washes, repairs and so on as included in the price.
“Give me a break. That's not actually how people look at what the capital cost is for an item. I think it's entirely disingenuous how they presented this.”
In response, Beck and the NDP doubled down on the $26 billion figure during question period Thursday, spending the entire time criticizing the government over the number.
Speaking to reporters, Beck also doubled down.
“What we know right now is that the cost of this coal refurb plan by this premier, by that minister, is $26 billion,” Beck said. “$26 billion that is going to put a staggering amount on the debt of this province that's already at $43 billion or it's going to cost ratepayers in this province $26 billion. Neither of those options is a good option for the people of this province.
"The government has a lot to account for here. We didn't see any accountability in the Assembly to date, but you can bet, and I say this to the people of this province, we will continue to push for transparency because this stinks.”
Credibility of numbers questioned by unions
In more recent days, the NDP’s “$26 billion” claims have come under attack from the province’s unions. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the United Mine Workers of America have both criticized the NDP's position on coal.
In a letter to Harrison released Friday, Ken Hoste, assistant business manager of IBEW 2067, said what was “witnessed from the NDP was not responsible opposition, but a deliberate misrepresentation of costs intended to undermine confidence in Saskatchewan’s energy sector and the workers who depend on it.”
“The NDP's costing figures are flawed and inflated. Their analysis improperly includes fuel costs while also attaching transmission upgrade costs that have already been identified as necessary regardless of future generation choices.”
Hoste also said the numbers appeared to include “capital, maintenance, and operating costs for decades to come” and said that to “portray those investments and costs as exclusive consequences of the Sask Party's plan is deliberately misleading Saskatchewan people.”
Members from IBEW and UMWA from the Estevan and Coronach areas appeared at the Legislature Monday alongside Harrison.
Harrison again pointed to what he called “really dishonest representations from the Opposition about what we are doing here as a part of our energy security strategy.”
The minister also pointed to “the direct attacks on these communities and these workers who have dedicated literally their heart and soul into keeping power on here in this province for, in many cases, generations.”
NDP accuses government of lack of transparency
The NDP countered Monday by accusing the government of keeping people in the dark about the costs of the coal plans.
“If this plan is so great, why are we only learning about it through leaked documents?” said NDP Highways and Infrastructure critic Darcy Warrington, who was in Meadow Lake on Monday. “Meadow Lake deserves an MLA that is honest, transparent and focused on the future — not one hiding billions in debt and new rate hikes from the public.”
At a news conference at the Legislature in Regina, SaskPower critic Aleana Young stood beside a pile of 1,500 internal SaskPower documents obtained through Freedom of Information requests and pointed out that most of the information in them was heavily redacted.
“The Sask Party government is building their strategy entirely behind closed doors — entirely hidden from transparency and public scrutiny,” said Young.
“They can’t tell you the details, but they’re going to send you the bill.”
