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Brandishing signs and chanting together, hundreds of students marched down Albert Street and filled the space in front of the Legislative Building on Friday — but they weren’t alone.
The students were joined by a few dozen workers from the solar industry.
The Fridays for Future march in Regina invited the solar industry to the climate rally, and added to its list of demands for the government the reinstatement of the net metering program.
Last week, SaskPower announced the program had hit its cap and wouldn’t be accepting any new applications.
Miguel Catellier, president of TruGreen Energy, was there with a group of workers. He spoke to the crowd, talking about the need for the program to come back.
“We’re here to make sure that people understand that solar is important. It’s an important part of the energy future in Saskatchewan, and we need the politicians to hear that,” Catellier said earlier.
Catellier said the weeks to come will be critical for his industry, as the provincial government is determining the future of the renewables policy in Saskatchewan.
He’s concerned the new program will have a less than 1:1 credit for power put back into the grid by solar power systems, something which he said has devastated solar industries in other provinces.
Brenden Owens was in the crowd as well; he’s the owner of Prairie Sun Solar. He said representatives of the solar companies attended the rally to get their voices heard and to get the province and SaskPower to allow their industry to continue on.
Owens said his company doesn’t have any new work coming in, and he only has enough work scheduled for the next two months.
“We’re here to make sure that people understand that solar is important, it’s an important part of the energy future in Saskatchewan, and we need the politicians to hear that,” he said.
With a number that has been quoted by other companies, Owens said there are 800 jobs in the industry that are on the line.
“Every single one of those people has a family, every single one of those people contributes to society, every single person in our industry is in the province (and) they’re reinvesting in the province,” Owens said. “And for the Sask. Party, and their policy and their No. 1 thing is jobs and the economy, and they’re looking to eliminate 800 jobs — it’s pretty mind-blowing and careless.”
Owens said everything depends on what the government decides in the next while, and he doesn’t think the government has been hearing them out.
“Obviously the program has to work and it has to work for everyone in the province, and it won’t work for everyone unless you have every party involved in the discussion,” said Owens.
When he got into the solar business, Owens said it was about the opportunity but also about renewable energy and climate change. He was in roofing previously and decided he wanted to do something more meaningful.
“Working with hard-working families and farmers in the province and putting systems in for them, it’s honestly a really feel-good job,” Owens said. “You look forward to waking up every day.”
On Monday, Environment Minister Dustin Duncan announced he would be moving up the timeline and said he hoped to have a decision on what a new rooftop solar program would look like by the end of October.