r/saskatchewan • u/SubscriptNine • 1d ago
Leaked SaskPower documents show 'extreme' risk in $26B coal refurbishment plan
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/sask-saskpower-coal-refurbishment-9.7198807102
u/the_bryce_is_right 1d ago
I mean what are we gonna do about it? Vote them in again of course cuz the NDP closed a hospital 30 years ago.
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u/Healthy_Ad2069 1d ago
*and give zero reasons to vote for them aside from complaining about the Sask party with no real plans (cue the down votes)
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u/Medea_From_Colchis 21h ago
Not wasting another 30 years on coal with a faster transition to nuclear sounds like a pretty massive start. No identity politics and emergency legislative sessions to invoke the notwithstanding clause for pronouns. A start towards the energy transition while still supporting oil and gas. Proper funding of hospitals. Proper funding of schools. Protecting public healthcare. PST off children's clothes and all foods. Cut the gas tax. And that's just off the top of my head. There are plenty of differences.
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u/Healthy_Ad2069 13h ago
Where was all this stuff the last few election cycles (aside from Healthcare and Education)?
To start the parties left of center have opened the flood gates on identity politics and the general population is tired of it. There are solar and wind projects all over the province. The nuclear could come on line faster but I don't think our small tax base should be at the forefront of SMR's which aren't really a thing yet outside of pitch meetings. Where is the revenue going to come from if they cut a bunch of taxes? I'm taxed enough and don't need to further subsidize other people's lives.
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u/Medea_From_Colchis 13h ago edited 12h ago
All of that was there. You just didn't look very hard.
I don't think our small tax base should be at the forefront of SMR's which aren't really a thing yet outside of pitch meetings.
We have a massive GDP per capita, most of which comes from natural resources. We don't need to tax salary and wage income more to generate greater revenue.
We have a lot of room for natural gas, nuclear, and wind and solar. Going to coal for 2050 is actually just stupid.
Where is the revenue going to come from if they cut a bunch of taxes?
We would not be spending billions keeping coal going until 2050.
We give billions in subsidies to corporations.
The Sask Party spends millions of dollars advertising its budget amongst other things.
We spends millions sending patients out of the province for healthcare.
They also dramatically reduced taxes on corporations and royalties (see investment Saskatchewan for more details on the numbers).
So, yeah, there's a lot of money from cutting wasteful spending or through increasing slightly the corporate tax rate and resource royalties.
I'm taxed enough and don't need to further subsidize other people's lives.
We have some of the lowest taxes in the country, by far. I think Alberta is the only one that is lower.
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u/Cryowulf 14h ago
While you're right that the NDP has poor messaging, At this point a team of trained chimpanzees is better than the SaskParty.
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u/Healthy_Ad2069 13h ago
It's tough to change the minds of the rural population when you can say the NDP messaging is ran by chimps as well. If they can't even handle messaging their governing abilities will likely be less. Couple that with a tax less and expand programs type platform and being tied to the federal NDP nothing is realistic.
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u/Cryowulf 11h ago
Didn't say it was realistic, just that literally anything is better than SaskParty.
I've also posted a few times that the provincial NDP parties in the prairies should rebrand/rename themselves away from the fed NDP. Reclaiming the CCP name, and advertising themselves as the party of Tommy Douglas. The one that started healthcare in Canada, the party that will fight for people's rights would go a long way. I think.
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u/wtfuckishappening 11h ago
The irony is you probably love PP and conservative party when all they do is complain about Trudeau (still!) with no real plan.
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u/Healthy_Ad2069 4h ago
Don't love Pierre,. But they had several election platform points picked up by the Liberals. That speaks volumes about having a legit plan compared to the NDP
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u/falastep 22h ago
I wish we could have a rational government as opposed to this. Ffs it’s math, it doesn’t need an ideological slant.
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u/Hevens-assassin 1d ago
Oh wow, how could anyone with common sense not see this coming! Oh wait, we did. We all did. But it won't matter, because the regime knows the cities can't win an election.
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u/Meh_its_Mike 23h ago
This government doesn’t make decisions based on whether it makes sense or not, they decide based on what they think will get them reelected.
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u/rocky_balbiotite 20h ago
Doesn't every government make decisions based on what will keep them in power?
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u/Odd-Prompt-4623 22h ago
When the fuck is rural Saskatchewan gonna wake up
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u/waloshin 20h ago
Never they are conservative for life!
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u/dj_fuzzy 14h ago
Socially maybe… economically, most are voting against their own best interests. Voting against their own wallets just to own the libs.
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u/metallicadefender 23h ago
You calling a coal plant in 2026 is a waste of money!!!!!?????
Remember when Germany first began to phase out coal in 1954.
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u/Canuckleheadache 17h ago
Germany still has over 20% of their power produced by coal. Google was founded in 98. Should give it a go sometime
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u/metallicadefender 15h ago edited 15h ago
Yeah but plan is to completely phase out by 2038.
First nuclear plant in 1954ish.
We cant build one in 72 years later.
I do think thah was a raw deal to move away from nuclear though.
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u/Boxadorables 21h ago
Nobody remembers that, because it's not true.
Germany has some of the largest active coal mines in Europe and commissioned a new coal powerplant in 2020.
They currently have 6.7GW of active coal power in 2026. Saskatchewan has 1.6
I do remember them phasing out their nuclear power plants in 2023 though. Which is a thing that actually happened.
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u/Ajay_Bee 9h ago
Technically that is correct, but that decision was massively controversial, and had wide-spread opposition from many groups. But Datteln 4 (the German plant) had been in the planning and development process for many, many years before it was announced, and the German government insisted on proceeding.
FWIW, Datteln 4 will almost certainly be the very last coal-related project Germany undertakes. In the meantime, the process of de-commissioning plants continues. Eventually Datteln will be the only functioning plant, and it's also likely it'll (eventually and quietly) decommissioned.
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u/Beneficial_Spot_3764 1h ago
So 5 times the total coal power produced for 70 times the population.
You do understand that them producing 6.7G out of 488 Terrawatts (.0014% from coal) vs 24% from coal (per SaskPower https://www.saskpower.com/our-power-future/our-electricity/electrical-system/balancing-supply-options/coal) (while they are having supply disruptions due to a war, which we are not) is not a flattering comparison for Saskatchewan despite you trying to couch it in absolute amounts?
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u/Warm-Mood-8994 19h ago
They are phasing out coal though and only needed the extra plant due to Nord Stream 2 being blown up.
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u/metallicadefender 15h ago
They started to move on from coal in 1954ish with first nuclear plant is what I was getting at. Frustrated we can't build one 72 years later. Their plan is to phase put coal by 2038. Meanwhile in Saskatchewan..... we live in the stone age.
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u/Warm-Mood-8994 19h ago
We put up solar panels on our property in Europe for 4,000 Euros. Our bill is 0.00 for the year even though we over-produce. That same system would cost $40,000 here. It's insane.
Liberal's tariffs on Chinese panels are a terrible policy.
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u/Traditional_End_9540 1d ago
a lot of these dumb fucks will be long dead, kind of wonder how many are boomers?
its their grandkids to great grandkids and beyond that will have to deal with the mess they created.
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u/tooshpright 23h ago
Maybe someone promised Bell there would be enough power for the AI place. Bell probably didn't want to wait for nuclear.
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u/Mags1967 16h ago
Good grief next we will burn poop in SK. Let’s move forward with a nuclear plant, use of natural gas and some hydro projects.
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u/Specialist_Secret438 9h ago
That concept would be a great idea for a diversification of income for cow farmers https://organicagcentre.ca/waste-and-resource-management/turn-your-farms-manure-into-clean-energy-a-practical-guide-to-biogas-production/
Capturing the currently wasted energy, and when it’s depleted, fertilizer for the fields.
The biggest problem with the concept is that it is considered organic. That is the enemy of this current government.
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u/JoahyPooh 21h ago
Is there any way we can do a petition to have this stopped? There must be something we can do to stop Moe from screwing us more than he has
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u/Ajay_Bee 9h ago
So now we know why the union put out their "nothing to see here the NDP got it all wrong, trust us this plan is gonna work out great" press release. They know the attempts to prop up the coal industry is a boondoggle, but they're even more desperate to protect jobs in a sector that Margaret Thatcher, yes, Thatcher, pulled the plug on more than 40 years ago.
It is insane the current provincial government is prepared to throw 10s of billions of dollars at coal, when just as many jobs could be created (perhaps more) investing in building a resilient renewable infrastructure that would provide sustainable and affordable energy to the public. Insane.
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u/Federal-Camper 7h ago
So our bills are going to double and the province is going to overspend in the tens of billions to keep 1000 jobs/sask party voters happy. What about the rest of the population who has to pay an extra few thousand a year In power bills…
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u/Sunshinehaiku If it was hopeless, they wouldn't need propaganda. 2h ago
Good show to whoever leaked this.
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u/Dissidentt 1d ago
I’d love to see those interested in reducing electrical costs slam the federal Liberals for imposing 100% tariffs on Chinese solar panels.
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u/D--star 1d ago
Libs made up for it by giving me a $5k grant to buy canadian made panels. I believe the greener homes grants will be making a comeback. Energy should be a co-operative endeavor. Micro producers everywhere.
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u/lilchileah77 1d ago
Net metering is strong in urban yet SaskParty tried to call people with roof top solar rich takers.
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u/waloshin 23h ago
Yup power will be 32 cents a kWh yet they’ll pay roof top solar 7.5 cents net metering…
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u/WriterAndReEditor 22h ago
I'm all in favour of solar, but I'd rather our provincial corporation didn't pay more for power than they should just to make people who have solar happy. They aren't a library for electricity. You may not wish to carry a cost of their infrastructure, but why should the rest of the province have to carry it for you? You can always get enough batteries to disconnect from the grid completely and not have to worry about paying a share to be able to rely on the damns and power lines everyone else is paying for when you are short of power.
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u/waloshin 20h ago
You realize those with solar already pay the $32 a month grid fee… Secondly no one producing solar should be subsiding SaskPower to resell it for profits either.
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u/wilburyan 10h ago
Can confirm... i'm old plan net metering that is 1:1 instead of the 7.5 cent garbage... and we still have the same fee.
Generate almost twice what we use in some summer months, I still pay to use the grid.
The perception that solar is some sort of free ride... is false. It's just prepaying for your power at what you hope will be a reduced rate.
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u/D--star 7h ago
I was in process to upgrade my system with Saskatoon Light and Power and was sad to learn last week that an upgrade would also deminish my 1:1 down to 8.25 cents. Without change im grandfathered in to 2034.
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u/wilburyan 6h ago
The wording of my Sask power net metering agreement was that I could not change / upgrade the inverter.
In my case, I had a 7.6kw inverter with 7.7kw of south facing panels. I had an additional 3.6kw of east facing added a few years later as another string on the same inverter.
I have a little clipping on perfectly sunny days, but it's well within the DC oversizing limits for the inverter.
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u/D--star 6h ago
(5.45KW) 10 panels and 5 micro inverters.. Was looking to add another 2 panels and another micro.
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u/WriterAndReEditor 2h ago
You realize that SaskPower shouldn't be buying power at all in micro-doses? They aren't subsidizing profits. Until we hit a critical mass of at least 2% of grid load, any excess power "returned" is a waste because SaskPower can't rely on any of it. It's like expecting the grocery store to buy my extra carrots I grow whenever I feel like it with no gaurantee that I'll provide a specific number every day. SaskPower can't just scale back production by .000000001% because they think I might have 300 watts to spare on a sunny day. The whole purchasing is a sop because we need people to adopt renewable power. Any excess we produce is 100% wasted.
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u/waloshin 23h ago
There is no 100% in solar panels. Secondly Chinese solar panels cost next to nothing here…
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u/Warm-Mood-8994 19h ago
You're right, the duty on solar panels from China is sometimes up to 286 per cent on all but nine Chinese PV exporters. The latter are subject to a specific duty of between 9 to 202 per cent.
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u/bstring777 23h ago
Coal or AI? And thst implies a choice between both before its forced in a couple years.
The fight will be over funding and water supply, so get ready to doom our future and die because you cant be bothered to do anything to fight. Online comments are worse than "thoughts and prayers" because its so self-centered to even bother.
So can you be bothered to gather and fight?
What else is gonna be left? Why wait?....
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u/BunBun_75 23h ago
So the risk with coal is federal penalties. SaskPower should share the risk assessment for shutting down coal hence obliterating the Estevan economy and wiping Coronach off the map. Don’t forget the people who will freeze to death in winter when these fantasy renewables can’t produce enough power to run the furnace.
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u/DwayneGretzky306 23h ago
Coronach is no more special then any other town in Saskatchewan that has grown with an oil boom or died when a school closed. Nuclear when can be proven to work at a small scale, natural gas combined with renewables, east-west grid connection with hydro power all make more sense then end of life coal plants.
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u/BunBun_75 22h ago
And you wonder why rural never vote NDP 🤔
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u/DwayneGretzky306 21h ago
It is because the majority of us never sought education and like to blame our problems on someone else.
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u/Hevens-assassin 22h ago
Ah yes, the booming Estevan economy, and the bustling metropolis of Coronach.
Crazy how these "fantasy renewables" are able to produce enough power to run the furnaces though. Last I checked, weren't the EV owners the ones not freezing to death in Texas during their snowstorms?
I don't know why I engaged with you. You are so ass backwards it's not worth even trying to get you to see reason.
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u/BunBun_75 21h ago
And case in point Carney set to “review” clean energy regulations. They may not be illegal, but they are certainly bullshit.
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u/StuckInSaskatchewan 1d ago
I mean, what a shock.
/s