SaskPower has contracted out 30 extra electricians from three local electrical companies to keep the meter box inspections going across the province.
Not only are these new hires helping to continue the systematic inspections in Regina, Moose Jaw, Rosetown, Shaunavon and Kindersley, but spokesperson Jonathan Tremblay said they are also going back to some houses where they did temporary fixes.
“In many cases, we may have removed the meter boxes entirely, and then sent an electrician back to do a permanent repair,” he explained.
Since July 19, the crown corporation has received 1,200 calls for service, and has completed 4,000 systematic inspections — 43 per cent of which were leading to an incident.
“It certainly means we need to take this extremely seriously, and that’s why we have all the resources we possibly can,” he said.
Tremblay didn’t expand on how much these incidents and hires are costing SaskPower, but said each repair could cost up to $2,000.