26 union members and two mayors stood behind SaskPower minister, none stood behind NDP SaskPower critic

 

 

REGINA – In the musical Hamilton, there’s part of a song that goes, “The World Turned Upside Down.” And one could be forgiven for thinking that, when it comes to politics, unions, and power generation in Saskatchewan.

In subsequent press scrums, 26 union members from two unions stood behind the SaskPower minister, but none stood behind NDP SaskPower critic.

Usually, when people got to the Legislature because they have a beef, they’re ticked at the government. It’s not common for union members to go to the legislature to take issue with the stance of the opposition, not that of the government, and a right-wing government at that. But that is indeed what happened. The world turned upside down.

The NDP opposition has been hammering the Saskatchewan Party Government on its coal refurbishment plan, saying it will cost too much. One NDP MLA even suggested on May 11 that more child care space could be built if the coal-fired power plants were not refurbished, with Joan Pratchler asking, “Can the minister explain to me how many child care spaces he could fund with $26 billion from now till 2050?”

Prior to Question Period, Minister of Crown Investments Corporation and Minister Responsible for SaskPower Jeremy Harrison was joined by 26 members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and United Mine Workers of America, mayors of Estevan and Coronach, all of which supported the government plan. Notably, CTV’s report cropped out almost all of the supporters standing behind the minister.

Both unions have published open letters taking issue with the NDP’s stance on coal-fired power. Here’s the one from UMWA, and here’s the one from IBEW.

After Question Period, NDP Shadow Minister for Jobs, Economy & SaskPower Aleana Young took to the microphone in the Legislature rotunda – and there were no union members standing behind her.

In a closely related development, those two unions are getting into the fight with regards to a legal action that has been trying to shut down the coal refurbishment it its tracks. Last summer, a then-12 year old, a podcaster and someone who doesn’t even live here, the Citizens for Public Justice and Saskatchewan Environmental Society sought to kill 1400 coal-related jobs via a court injunction. That injunction was thrown out this past January, and on Feb. 5, an appeal was filed.

On May 11, both the UMWA and IBEW filed to the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal for intervenor status in the appeal with regards to their seeking an injunction that would stop the Government of Saskatchewan from refurbishing the coal-fired generation fleet. The two unions, whose memberships’ coal-related jobs were on the path to oblivion in just three years seven months and 20 days from now, are taking a firm stance in fighting the appeal.

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Here is the verbatim transcript of Harrison’s scrum, with most of the questions being posed by Pipeline Online. You can read Young’s scrum here. Question Period devoted most of its time to the issue, and the full text of that will be published Wednesday morning.

Jeremy Harrison: Thanks for being here, everybody.  I do appreciate it, and what I really want to do is thank the folks here standing behind me, and beside me, literally beside me, from the United Mine Workers, from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers from the City of Estevan, from the Town of Coronach, folks who are directly engaged in working every single day to keeping the lights on and the power on here in this province, and whose communities are genuinely and at the centre of that of that industry and that power generation.

So what I am going to have the opportunity to do is maybe ask some of the representatives to say a few words as well. But really, you know what I wanted to talk about, and we’ll be talking about probably in question period as well, here, is the really dishonest representations from the opposition about what we are doing here as a part of our energy security strategy, the misrepresentations and dishonesty about the cost of our life extension of our thermal coal as we transition to nuclear base load power generation, and the direct attacks on these communities and these workers, who have dedicated literally their heart and soul into keeping power on here in this province for, in many cases, generations. And communities that have been at the center of this for generations, really being dismissively referred to as we’ll just pay people and they’ll go away. The last person who said that was Justin Trudeau, and we’re hearing it now from Carla Beck. It is extraordinarily disappointing hearing this from the members opposite.

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But what I really wanted to do was just thank and have a chance to catch up again. Clearly, we have some very close relationships that we’ve worked hard to build over the last number of years, but to have an opportunity for folks to speak firsthand to the impact on their jobs. These are real people with real families, with real mortgages in real communities. These are not numbers. This is not some theoretical discussion. This is real stuff, real world stuff for these folks here today.

And I just want to say thanks so much for being here. Extend again, the enormous respect and gratitude that your province has for the work that you do every day, whether it be in the boundary dam or Shand or poplar river, or whether it be in leading your communities in Estevan or Coronach or rural municipalities in the area, I want to say thank you and extend the enormous respect and gratitude that we have for the work that you do every day. And with that, maybe I’ll ask some of the ken if you maybe want to say a few words from IBEW.

 

Ken Hoste (assistant business manager, IBEW Local 2067): Thank you. (I wish to) echo Minister Harrison.

So these are real communities, real people. Speaking for myself, I’m a third generation coal worker. My dad, my grandfather, worked in the mine. My dad worked at SaskPower, and I’ve done both. And you know, beyond the numbers not making sense. You know, these are real people that their lives that are going to be destroyed from this.

And it’s not just some jobs down in Estevan and Coronach, it’s a culture. And, I understand they’ve been townhalling this plan all over the province. And one place they haven’t come is Estevan or Coronach, and nobody’s come down there to say how phasing out coal is going to be better for us than it is to keep coal for another generation.

 

Ashley Johnson (financial secretary for United Mine Workers of America Local 7606): I have been working down there for 15 years at the mine. I’m a first generation. Hopefully I have maybe some of my family carry on.

One thing I kind of wanted to bring up is that, you know, it’s not just us at the mine and at SaskPower that be affected by this refurbishment not happening. It’s the teachers, it’s all everybody, the Canada Post, right down to your people working at a 7-Eleven, simple as that. You know, it affects everybody.

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And the other thing to me, it doesn’t make sense. Yeah, gas is gas is good, but we don’t have it in the province. Here we rely on, I think it’s something like 98 per cent of it comes from Alberta. We’ve got the coal here in the ground, and the price doesn’t fluctuate. It’s not on the open market. To me, that makes sense for energy security and for the province. And there’s ways to make coal work even better yet than what it is. So I think that’s what we need to focus on going forward. So thank you.

 

Cal Martin (Mayor of Coronach): Looking about this as a community and community leader. It’s emotional. It’s been very emotional, both directions. It was pretty sad up until the announcement that our minister made here a while back in our community, in our area, two out of three people are related to a job at or associated with the mine or the power plant. If this hadn’t been done, we’d be rolling up sidewalks. I can’t allow that to happen.

 

Tony Sernick (Mayor of Estevan): It’s an honor to be here with everybody here today. As Cal just said, the importance of it. (In) 2020, Estevan, we were, we were looking to be a ghost town. We were going to lose half of our budget, of our city, probably rolling up sidewalks, as he said.

But coal mining is just so important to Estevan, but it’s important to Saskatchewan.  Reliability – we also live in winter.

February is the worst time. Everything can be unreliable, but the end of the day, there’s always a big old pile of coal up behind the power plants when it’s too cold for everybody to work outside.

But again, it’s just important to us. We’ve been doing it for 150 years in Saskatchewan. It’s our coal and, yeah, we just want to keep going, and bring reliable power to everybody in Saskatchewan. This isn’t just about Estevan and Coronach, which it is, at the same time, but it’s really about Saskatchewan. It’s very important.

And we just cannot stress that importance of this reliability of our home grown, I guess we didn’t grow it, but it’s our coal. It’s in the ground. It’s Saskatchewan. The investment stays in Saskatchewan, the prosperity stays in Saskatchewan, and we’re not sending it away to Alberta or United States relying on natural gas. So again, roll on with the coal. Keep her going.

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Questions

Pipeline Online: For Ken and Ashley: For each of you, if I can ask, the NDP has said, multiple MLAs have said, it’s easier to write a $10 million check to each coal worker in Saskatcehwan. Basically, effectively, it would be better for you go to away then to keep coal. What did you think when they’ve said that? And they’ve said it multiple times.

Ashley Johnson (UMWA): I guess kind of my thoughts on that was, so, yeah, maybe, you know, I’d get a check for $10 million. But what about there was a study done quite a few years ago, and the spin off for every job loss between the mines and the coal workers in the coal handling side of SaskPower was going to be seven in the community. So what do you do with the other seven people, times every, every one of us workers, for them? How much money do you give them, because they’re all a part of this as well. And to me, they’re not looking at that the bigger part of the community, and that disappoints me.

Ken Hoste (IBEW): Yeah, just to echo what Ashley said, $10 million per coal worker would be great, but this is a community. This is a culture, and every single person in the town is connected to coal, whether they work in it or not, the spin offs, restaurants, people, buying vehicles, everything. You know, the whole town needs coal.

Pipeline Online: Again, for each of you here, we’re going to burn something. If we’re not burning coal, we’re going to be burning natural gas, which means upstream, instead of jobs being in Estevan and Coronach, they’re going to be in Alberta, for the drilling rigs, and oil companies there, and paying, I’m not sure, but maybe 17 per cent royalties to Alberta. What are your thoughts on local supply versus having jobs upstream, in Alberta, instead of Saskatchewan?

Ken Hoste (IBEW): Well, we are lucky. We’re blessed with a bunch of oil under the ground, but we’re unfortunately not blessed with a lot of gas. And what we do have is coal. It’s mined locally, by Saskatchewan people. It’s located right adjacent to the plants, and like Mayor Tony said, when the weather gets bad and things are breaking down, that big pile of coal is right behind the plant, ready to go.

Ashley Johnson (UMWA): Yeah, exactly. Actually, as Ken was saying, the coal is within the province. The province owns it. We know the cost going forward, for years to come, what it’s going to cost to mine it. It stays pretty flat. And then we’re not relying on Alberta or the US to supply us with the natural gas and the jobs that are out of province, and it’s just keeps the revenue going in the province by staying in province.

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Reporter 2: I guess the way this goes, this is part of the transition to nuclear. So it seems these jobs are going to go away eventually. Is this just pushing things forward?

Jeremy Harrison: No, I would fundamentally disagree with that, Lisa. I mean, this is our energy workforce here right now, the premier has spoken about this. I have as well.

You know, why would we? You know, as the NDP are suggesting put 1400 people out of work who are the heart of our energy workforce, for both SaskPower, for Westmoreland for, you know, all elements of that supply chain when it comes to power production right now. And you know, we’ve had some great discussions within this group about what that future is going to look like as well, both in Estevan and Coronach. You know, we’re taking all of the above approach on power. We are going to get to nuclear power generation, and you know that’s going to take time, though, and our bridge to nuclear power generation is to life extend and repower our existing thermal coal fleet. And we’ve been very clear about that all the way along.

That’s the central discussion that’s occurring right now, because the opposition position is that we should immediately shut down our existing thermal coal fleet, transition to gas and then in the long term, and I guarantee you, they’re not actually committed to this either. They don’t actually believe in nuclear. That’s what they’re saying, though.

Our position has been very, very clear, all of the above coal, we have gas in the grid as well. We have hydro, we have biomass. I can speak to that first hand in Meadow Lake. It’s all of the above, including intermittent renewables as a part of that, of which I’ve announced four projects since I’ve been minister.

But to ideologically, and this is an ideological attack on coal and coal workers and coal employees by the NDP, make no mistake, this is ideological for them. We are being very pragmatic about what we have in this province. What we have is coal. What we have is uranium, and we’re going to use that, and we’re going to do it without apology, because this is what makes sense from an energy security, from a reliability and from an affordability perspective, and all of these folks know that as well, and that’s why they’re here today, and that’s why we’re so grateful for the work that they do.

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Reporter 2: Eventually we are going to transition like once we’re at the end of life, whether it transition away from coal to nuclear, and coal jobs will go away …

Jeremy Harrison: No. I mean, look, we’re not going to take one megawatt off of the grid. You know, we want to get to nuclear power, base load generation, but that’s why we’re life-extending our coal fleet right now as the bridge to get to nuclear.

You know, I think what we have embarked on is that path on nuclear. We’re working through site selection right now in the Estevan area on SMRs. We’ve announced the technology selection process, looking at large scale nuclear. But this is long road, and it’s a road we’re going to travel down. But what we are being very realistic though, about what the future is going to look like in the immediate and medium term, which is that we are going to be continuing to rely on thermal base load power generation in Estevan, in Coronach. That’s going to continue to be a very, very important part of what we’re doing, and it’s paying results.

I mean, we literally are the only jurisdiction in Canada that actually has allocatable base load power right now. I’ll speak about it in the House afterwards, I’m sure, during Question Period. But the reason why we have $62 billion of capital investment in this province right now for new uranium mines, for new copper mine, for new potash mine, for a massive investment into a new data center here, the reason that we actually are getting those investments is because we have allocatable, dispatchable base load power, which is because of the work that these folks do every single day.

Reporter 2: So nuclear is not a replacement for coal?

Jeremy Harrison: Well, look, I mean nuclear, we’re going to get to nuclear. But we’re not going to take any existing generation off of the grid. The premier has been clear about that as well. And you know, we’re going to work as quickly as we can towards nuclear, but this is a probably a longer term path. But we do want to get to nuclear as a as our base load power generation, I’ve said by 2050. We do want to get to a net-zero grid, but that’s 24 years away.

 

——

Editor’s note: If your job, business, community or family are directly affected by the ongoing coal story, where will you find the most comprehensive coverage? For comparison, check out CTV and SaskToday. As of late Monday night, neither the Leader Post or Global News had posted coal-related stories from the days events. 

 

 

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  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
• 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
• 0077 Caprice Resources Stand Up For Free Speech
  0077 Caprice Resources Stand Up For Free Speech
• 0061 SIMSA 2024 For Sask Buy Sask
  0061 SIMSA 2024 For Sask Buy Sask
• 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
• 0002 gilliss casing services
  0002 gilliss casing services
• 9002 Pipeline Online 30 sec EBEX
  9002 Pipeline Online 30 sec EBEX
• 9001