While there is no reason to applaud a 9.5 per cent increase for electrical power service in Saskatchewan over the next 18 months, the proposed hike on our SaskPower bills can’t really be termed despicable either.
Contrary to what the New Democratic Party’s SaskPower critic states, the proposed rate increase can hardly be referred to as a knee jerk reaction to the power company’s “debacles.”
Using that term, however, is understandable. The NDP’s Carla Beck has been assigned the task of being the critic on the SaskPower file, so we should expect to hear a little hyperbole from that corner. After all, what kind of critic would utter statements that term the rate increase proposal as “unfortunate” or use some other minor rebuke.
No, it is the critic’s job to label the proposed hike as being a direct result of SaskPower’s debacles, meaning the Smart Meters and the Boundary Dam clean coal project.
While the smart meters fiasco could be seen quite clearly as nearing the definition of debacle, placing the BD3 clean coal project in the same category, just doesn’t fly.
Admittedly, the carbon capture experience didn’t soar to wonderful heights as originally claimed, and SaskPower and the provincial government paid the price in the temporary loss of public credibility once they confessed the error of their overstated success rates at BD3.
Pilot projects of any sort have a propensity for glitches upon startup and the CCS experiment at Boundary Dam was no different.
The overall wisdom of taking this route toward the future and carbon reduction, can certainly be questioned and debated at length, if critics so wish.
But a debacle, it is not, because it works.
The economics of this $700-to $800-million pilot project can and will be assessed over the life span of the capture island. Please note the price tag we have placed on the CCS project since half of the $1.4 to $1.6 billion price tag was directly associated with the refurbishment of the No. 3 power unit itself, including a new generator which would have been necessary with or without a carbon and sulphur dioxide capture island.
This unit is producing 120 megawatts of electrical power into the Saskatchewan grid on a regular basis while the carbon dioxide is being sold at a profit now, not at a loss as was recorded during those early stumbling step days. The SO2 will also be sold, once that element of the project gets the green light on the security front.
Unlike the smart meters, BD3 and CCS will be producing millions of dollars on the revenue front for years to come, so that has to be factored into the equation before attaching the politically charged “debacle” label.
Let’s look at the SaskPower rate hikes for what they really are.
Like other utilities in the province, additional money is needed to pay and protect unionized employees who are receiving regular wage increases.
Like other utilities, SaskPower has an aging infrastructure that needs replacing over a vast geological landscape whether that power comes from wind generators, solar cells, natural gas plants or hydro units, it needs to be delivered to remote corners as well as to urban customers, often within challenging weather conditions.
And no, a 9.5 per cent rate hike over 18 months is not ridiculous.
Estevan ratepayers have been faced with an annual 10 per cent hike on our water bills for the past several years with promises of more of the same for several more years. We don’t like that either, but water and waste water service in Estevan is not a debacle, nor is our provincial electrical power service and carbon capture program.
