Coal Revival: The spinoffs to local businesses will be felt

Brian Zinchuk

Brian Zinchuk is editor and owner of Pipeline Online

Bernie Bjorndalen, in the front area of Southern Bolt Supply. Photo by Brian Zinchuk

ESTEVAN – When your business relies heavily upon the coal-fired power industry, the June 18 announcement that Saskatchewan would be rebuilding its fleet and not shutting it down in four and a half years was a welcome sigh of relief.

Bernie Bjorndalen owns and operates Southern Bolt Supply in Estevan. Pipeline Online spoke to him on June 19, the day after the announcement.

Bjorndalen said, “I think it’s huge for our business. This is a big part of our economy in southeast Saskatchewan and right here in Estevan. And I think it’s very good news for anybody that does work with power or the mines or anything that goes associated with coal-fired power.”

For Southern Bolt, between the coal mines and associated industries, coal makes up around 20 per cent of their business. “A good chunk of our business, for sure, between the mines and everything else that goes with it,” he said. “It’s a huge part of our business.”

• 0098 SASPO-2874_Self Serve Campaign_New Connects_Youtube_v3
  0098 SASPO-2874_Self Serve Campaign_New Connects_Youtube_v3
• 0100 Turnbull Project Manager
  0100 Turnbull Project Manager
• 0099 Mryglod Steel 1080p
  0099 Mryglod Steel 1080p
• 0097 Eagle Sky Ventures LTD
  0097 Eagle Sky Ventures LTD
• 0095 Fast Trucking nearly 70 years good at it
  0095 Fast Trucking nearly 70 years good at it
• 0053 Kingston Midstream Westspur Alameda Click Before You Dig
  0053 Kingston Midstream Westspur Alameda Click Before You Dig
• 0092 Turnbull projects big and small
  0092 Turnbull projects big and small
• 0046 City of Estevan This is Estevan Teaser
  0046 City of Estevan This is Estevan Teaser
• 0087 Lori Carr Coal Expansion
  0087 Lori Carr Coal Expansion
• 0077 Caprice Resources Stand Up For Free Speech
  0077 Caprice Resources Stand Up For Free Speech
• 0076 Latus only
  0076 Latus only
• 0061 SIMSA 2024 For Sask Buy Sask
  0061 SIMSA 2024 For Sask Buy Sask
• 0055 Smart Power Be Smart with your Power office
  0055 Smart Power Be Smart with your Power office
• 0051 JML Hiring Pumpjack assembly
  0051 JML Hiring Pumpjack assembly
• 0049 Scotsburn Dental soft guitar
  0049 Scotsburn Dental soft guitar
• 0041 DEEP Since 2018 now we are going to build
  0041 DEEP Since 2018 now we are going to build
• 0032 IWS Summer hiring rock trailer music
• 0022 Grimes winter hiring
• 0021 OSY Rentals S8 Promo
• 0018 IWS Hiring Royal Summer
• 0013 Panther Drilling PO ad 03 top drive rigs
• 0006 JK Junior
• 0002 gilliss casing services
  0002 gilliss casing services
• 9002 Pipeline Online 30 sec EBEX
  9002 Pipeline Online 30 sec EBEX
• 9001

Asked about what it would have looked like a few years down the road if coal was to shut down, Bjorndalen said, “That’s a really hard nut to crack, but I think ultimately it would mean at least downsizing, probably laying off some staff, looking at ways to increase your sales in other areas.”

He noted, “We’re pretty limited, in southeast Saskatchewan here, as you can expect. If you can expand your borders, you might be able to reach out farther, which we do as much as we can, but it would be a big chunk of business to overcome, for sure.”

Bernie Bjorndalen

As for his initial reaction to the announcement, he said, “My immediate reaction was, ‘Man, it’s about time the government recognized that the green power isn’t the answer.’

“It’s not reliable. It’s not baseload. So on the coldest days of the year and on the warmest days of the year, that seems to be when the wind is not blowing. Yeah, the sun might be shining, but like I say, on the coldest day of the year, that takes a lot of power to overcome that. And you see the stacks burning out the coal fired power plant, and they’re going full bore. When it’s like that, when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing, how do you overcome that, right?”

The first item on SaskPower’s agenda is to get Boundary Dam Unit 4 back in service, which in turn will mean more mining to supply it. And that will have a direct spin-off to Southern Bolt. Bjorndalen said, “For sure, some of that’s going to come to our door for, if not directly from SaskPower or the mines, but sometimes through contractors that work in this area and work in this field. So for sure, we benefit a lot from that.”

• 0098 SASPO-2874_Self Serve Campaign_New Connects_Youtube_v3
  0098 SASPO-2874_Self Serve Campaign_New Connects_Youtube_v3
• 0100 Turnbull Project Manager
  0100 Turnbull Project Manager
• 0099 Mryglod Steel 1080p
  0099 Mryglod Steel 1080p
• 0097 Eagle Sky Ventures LTD
  0097 Eagle Sky Ventures LTD
• 0095 Fast Trucking nearly 70 years good at it
  0095 Fast Trucking nearly 70 years good at it
• 0053 Kingston Midstream Westspur Alameda Click Before You Dig
  0053 Kingston Midstream Westspur Alameda Click Before You Dig
• 0092 Turnbull projects big and small
  0092 Turnbull projects big and small
• 0046 City of Estevan This is Estevan Teaser
  0046 City of Estevan This is Estevan Teaser
• 0087 Lori Carr Coal Expansion
  0087 Lori Carr Coal Expansion
• 0077 Caprice Resources Stand Up For Free Speech
  0077 Caprice Resources Stand Up For Free Speech
• 0076 Latus only
  0076 Latus only
• 0061 SIMSA 2024 For Sask Buy Sask
  0061 SIMSA 2024 For Sask Buy Sask
• 0055 Smart Power Be Smart with your Power office
  0055 Smart Power Be Smart with your Power office
• 0051 JML Hiring Pumpjack assembly
  0051 JML Hiring Pumpjack assembly
• 0049 Scotsburn Dental soft guitar
  0049 Scotsburn Dental soft guitar
• 0041 DEEP Since 2018 now we are going to build
  0041 DEEP Since 2018 now we are going to build
• 0032 IWS Summer hiring rock trailer music
• 0022 Grimes winter hiring
• 0021 OSY Rentals S8 Promo
• 0018 IWS Hiring Royal Summer
• 0013 Panther Drilling PO ad 03 top drive rigs
• 0006 JK Junior
• 0002 gilliss casing services
  0002 gilliss casing services
• 9002 Pipeline Online 30 sec EBEX
  9002 Pipeline Online 30 sec EBEX
• 9001