Buffalo Party gives thoughts on Saskatchewan power generation conversation

Estevan was the host to political parties last week, as conversations are heating up around the future of power production in Saskatchewan.

Besides Premier Scott Moe, another party leader in Phillip Zajac was at the scene, representing the Buffalo Party.

He had his own opinions on where Saskatchewan was heading, agreeing with Moe on parts while also veering away on others.

Zajac believes that the province should stick with coal into the future.

"This is all stuff that the Buffalo Party has been advocating for since the last election. We believe that we have a good base of income for people in this community with the coal mine, the coal mine has been here for generations. Families have grown and built legacies here, and coal is a safe and efficient way of producing energy."  

He was joined by Dave Grasser, the president of the Estevan constituency, and member of the provincial board, who also attended the event.

He shared Zajac's opinions, saying that they'd met every regulatory hurdle so far.

"Well, I understand why people think we gotta transition away from coal, because of the carbon dioxide. However, I have my opinions on that. The one thing that's always been true is every time they hit the coal mines or they hit the power stations with new regulations, we've met those regulations and we've come up with solutions for them." 

The party members then deviated from Moe, stating that a nuclear addition wouldn't work well for Saskatchewan.

"Nuclear, not an option. We know that one small nuclear [reactor] will cost the same as retroing all of the power plants in Saskatchewan. So why don't we just work with what we have? They give good jobs to Saskatchewan people and that's what we want to do. Forget about transition," said Zajac, "We're not going to transition away from coal, we're going to enhance coal." 

The cost was also a concern for the party.

"I am opposed to nuclear because the cost of it, it's going to be five, seven billion dollars to build one 350 Megawatt SMR. For that 5 to $7 billion, they could outfit Shand, Boundary, and Popular River with carbon capture," said Grasser, "They could keep all of us employed and create way more power than that one SMR."