We’ve known for several months that Estevan would be receiving some much-needed financial support from the provincial government as this city transitions away from conventional coal-fired power generation.
But we didn’t know how much we would be receiving until last week, when Premier Scott Moe came to Estevan to announce that the Energy City would receive $8 million of the $10 million available in the provincial coal transition fund, while Coronach would receive the other $2 million. That money will be paid out over three years.
Estevan won’t see the entire funding; some of the funds will have to be doled out to surrounding communities that will also be affected by the transition, such as Bienfait.
But the vast majority of that money will come to the Energy City.
The announcement at City Hall on Friday morning was a chance for Premier Scott Moe, Estevan MLA Lori Carr and other government representatives to tell us that we aren’t forgotten during this challenging time, that they’re here for us, and that they are still looking at carbon capture and storage as a part of the province’s future power generation needs. We’ll see whether their comments diminish the speculation in the community about coal’s overall future.
We don’t know where this money is going to be spent. What we do know is this money is not a blank cheque. It’s not going to be directed towards a new third arena for Estevan, or for raises for city staff members, or for new pickup trucks for city employees.
The provincial government has to give the green light for any projects for the $8 million in coal transition funding.
The comments on social media that were posted after the announcement about how this money would pay for a third arena should be dismissed as laughable and foolish.
Estevan should have received the majority of the $10 million from the province. We have a bigger community than Coronach; we’re going to suffer more job losses than the town 200 kilometres to the west. We’re ultimately going to need that money more.
At the same time, you can’t fault Coronach if they feel short-changed in this arrangement. Estevan is going to suffer a blow when Units 4 and 5 at Boundary Dam go offline, and that blow will be even greater if Unit 6 at Boundary Dam and the Shand Power Station are retired, which will happen within the next decade if the government decides not to retrofit them with CCS technology.
But we still have the oil industry. And people in our community are looking at ways to diversify our economy.
Coronach’s economy is entirely tied to coal-fired power generation. The town’s mayor pointed out they have 300 jobs tied to the mines and the Poplar River Power Station. And while many of those workers live out of town, they don’t expect they’ll be able to fill all of those jobs, no matter how much they try to diversify their economy.
You have to sympathize with the challenges that town is facing.
We’re grateful to the provincial government for the money we’ve received so far. The $8 million for Estevan, coupled with the money we’ve received from the federal government, is a great start. But it’s a start. We’re going to need a lot more money from both the province and the feds over the next few years. The negative economic impact we’re going to suffer once Boundary 4 and 5 come offline is going to be a lot greater than $8 million.
We’re looking at hundreds of jobs lost, in a city with a population over 10,000, in the next few years. Those are good-paying jobs with wages that average out to more than $100,000 per year.
As we’ve stated before, if you currently work in Estevan, and you don’t think your workplace is going to be adversely affected by the retirement of Units 4 and 5, then think again.
So we’re glad to get $8 million, and hopefully it will be put to good use. But it’s just a start.
