An equivalency agreement has been signed, and it extend the life of Units 4 and 5 at the Boundary Dam Power Station beyond this year.
Dustin Duncan, who is the provincial minister of the Environment and the minister responsible for SaskPower, reported that Catherine McKenna, the federal minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada, signed the pact on May 2. Duncan followed suit the next day.
The last remaining step is for the federal government to pass an order in June, which Duncan called “a formality.”
Duncan said it’s a big relief for the province, SaskPower and all of the associated employees to have the agreement signed.
“This has been a long time coming, and so to finally put pen to paper and actually sign the agreement, it is a relief, particularly when we are already five months into the calendar year,” said Duncan.
Without an equivalency agreement, Units 4 and 5 at Boundary Dam would have had to be taken offline at the end of this year. Now Unit 4 will be retired at the end of 2021, while Unit 5 will come offline in 2024.
“We certainly were not planning to wind down the operations. It was certainly our intent to operate the units out for the next number of years,” said Duncan.
The discussions over the equivalency agreement started back in 2011, when the Conservatives were still the governing party. There have been several changes in the environment minister portfolio for both the provincial and federal governments since that initial meeting.
Next week’s edition of the Mercury will have more on this story.
