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Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a new federal electricity strategy early Thursday morning.
It involves consulting with Canada’s provinces and territories on how to strengthen the grid, as well as introducing a number of areas of concentration for the federal government.
Premier Scott Moe said the announcements weren’t surprising.
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“It’s been in the works for a while and, in fairness, I would say that through some of the conversations that we’ve had with various ministers and the Prime Minister and the PMO office that Saskatchewan had a hand in this,” said Moe, explaining his government had been explaining where the province is and is going in power production.
The premier appeared to give a nod to parts of the plan, pointing out the emphasis on effective and affordable action and the federal government’s intention to adjust the Clean Electricity Regulations to provide flexibility.
When asked about the province’s coal plan and carbon pricing, Moe said several times that all those negotiations were now open around transitional forms of power and existing capacity.
“How do we utilize that to ensure that we can actually take concrete steps to a nuclear-powered future, which is lower emissions, how can we do that in a way that is going to provide affordable, reliable power for the people of Saskatchewan, not just today but for years into the future,” he said.
He also pointed out that a number of the priorities laid out by the prime minister are similar to what the province has been working on.
“(The document) prioritizes nuclear power, which is the direction Saskatchewan is going. It prioritizes interties of electricity with other provinces, which, most certainly, Saskatchewan can play a significant role. And it prioritizes not turning off one megawatt of power that we currently have today,” Moe explained.
The province has been working toward nuclear power, expecting construction to start in the 2030s. Moe said it’s a 14-year regulatory process to build a nuclear reactor in Canada, but he pointed out there is now a stated interest for the federal government to support nuclear power.
“We have a major projects office – there very much is an opportunity for us to work with the nuclear industry, to work with our SaskPower utility, and to work with the federal government on advancing that regulatory process, so maybe it’s down to five, six, seven years, as opposed to 14 years. And that brings this whole conversation forward,” said Moe.
NDP SaskPower critic Aleana Young thought the federal plan was pretty familiar.
“I saw a plan that looks an awful lot like Carla Beck and the NDP’s Grid & Growth plan – expanding transmission, building out natural gas, building out renewables, investing in nuclear,” said Young.
What she didn’t see in that plan, according to Young, was a doubling-down on coal-fired power generation.
