REGINA — An attempt by NDP critic for SaskPower Aleana Young to force an emergency audit of SaskPower has fallen at committee.
Young brought a motion to Public Accounts Committee on Wednesday to compel a special emergency audit of SaskPower by the provincial auditor.
But as expected, the motion, which Young introduced right at the start of the committee meeting, did not get very far, with the Sask Party majority voting it down by a 4-2 vote.
The vote came right before an appearance of Provincial Auditor Tara Clemett before the committee, where she submitted her annual report on operations and business and financial plan.
Prior to the committee meeting, Young told reporters that government members could either “vote for transparency and accountability on behalf of their constituents, or they can continue with this desperate cover-up that has been directed by the premier and his lieutenant, Jeremy Harrison.”
Young said her motion came after “we've been inundated by concerns from people all across the province about the hundreds of millions of dollars, nearly a billion dollars of secret spending at SaskPower.” She said a “week of questioning about $813 million, nearly a billion dollars of public money has led to zero answers from Premier Scott Moe and his desperate minister.”
Young said people in Saskatchewan were looking at a potential 10 per cent power hike “due to this gross mismanagement by the Sask Party.”
“Now, my message to those MLAs, to Minister Harrison, and to the premier is this: We are not going to let up. This is a billion dollars of public money and there is too much at stake. What we're looking at here is really unprecedented mismanagement and lies from an 18-year-old Sask Party government that thinks that basic accountability is optional. They clearly stopped caring about the people that they serve a long, long time ago, and one way or another, we're going to get to the bottom of this. Saskatchewan people are counting on us.”
In their response, the Government of Saskatchewan said in a statement that “the $813-million variance is a result of lower than budgeted earnings, increased capital infrastructure expenses, adjustments to grant funding assumptions and changes to accounts payable and accrued liability balances. It also includes a $250-million variance as a result of the timing of borrowings between 2024-25 and 2025-26 driven by capital expenditures.”
“This is all part of the province’s standard budget process,” the government's statement read.
They also pointed to the mid-year report from Nov. 25 as providing a detailed breakdown of the province’s finances, and said there will also be another detailed financial report released for both the province and SaskPower after the end of this quarter.
