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After the release of a leaked document from SaskPower, the provincial government and Saskatchewan NDP have been going back and forth over the cost of refurbishing the province’s coal plants.
Last year, Jeremy Harrison, the minister responsible for SaskPower, announced the province’s plan to ignore federal regulations and refurbish its coal-fired power plants. As of last summer, the province had said refurbishing the coal plants would cost about $900 million. That estimate grew to $2.6 billion this winter.
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The Sask. NDP has released documents leaked by an employee at SaskPower. The documents appear to show the cost of extending the life of the plants for another 25 years to be $11.4 billion. The slides also show a $1.4 billion cost for transmission and a fuel cost of $13 billion over the 25 years, plus an initial capital investment of $393 million, adding up to $26.2 billion in total.
“This is $26 billion dollars that is either going to be piled onto the debt for people today, our children and our grandchildren, or it’s going to be repaid with a $26 billion power rate hike – something that people in this province simply cannot afford,” NDP Leader Carla Beck said on Thursday.
She and the NDP accused the provincial government of hiding the true cost of the project from the public.
“This is a number that’s bigger than the entire budget of this province right now,” said Beck, claiming the government cannot be trusted.
Aleana Young, the NDP’s critic for SaskPower, joined The Evan Bray Show on Friday morning. Young said the $26 billion is total cost over the 25-year life of the plants. She explained the frustration over the number, saying there is still a lot of work the government has committed to on energy that will still need to be paid for.
“I’m not offended by burning coal. We should run those plants to end of life or as practical, but when we look at what we could and what we should be doing for low-cost, reliable and flexible electricity here in Saskatchewan, this is the most expensive option we could be picking,” said Young.
Minister Jeremy Harrison. (Sask. Legislative Service)
Harrison spoke to the media Thursday morning, saying the useful number for the conversation is the one the government has been using: $2.6 billion.
He said the $26 billion figure includes costs for fuel and building out the transmission infrastructure over 25 years.
“These would be costs incurred regardless of the power generation method, whether that was gas or any other method,” the minister explained.
And, Harrison said, the $11.4 billion for the 25-year extension included capital costs and the costs of running and maintaining the plants for that time.
“It’s entirely disingenuous how they presented this,” he said.
Work is already underway on the life extension for the coal-fired plants. Harrison said Boundary Dam 4 came back online last week, which is earlier than expected.
In its own power generation plan, the NDP has touted natural gas generation as a viable option. But Harrison said building enough natural gas power plants to replace Saskatchewan’s existing coal plants would cost several times more, and noted that the cost of fuel is more variable than that of coal.
“Coal is going to be our bridge to get to nuclear baseload power generation. We’ve been very clear about that in all the submissions, public commentary, announcements I’ve made,” said the minister.
In 2024-25, 24 per cent of Saskatchewan’s power came from coal. SaskPower has three coal-fired power plants: Boundary Dam and Shand Power Stations in Estevan and Poplar River Power Station near Coronach. Boundary Dam can generate 531 megawatts of power and includes carbon capture technology in one of its units. The Shand Power Station can produce 276 MW, and Poplar River can create 582 MW of power.
