Brian Zinchuk is editor and owner of Pipeline Online
Crown Investments Corporation (and SaskPower) Minister Jeremy Harrison, right. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
REGINA – Why is Saskatchewan approving additional wind and solar projects at Assiniboia and Coronach? (See principal story here.) Here’s Crown Investments Corporation (and SaskPower) Minister Jeremy Harrison’s speech, given at the May 1 announcement in Regina, verbatim, picking up after the acknowledgements:
I’ve been really excited about this. I can tell you, I nearly blurted it out in the legislature yesterday, actually, during introductions, I was so excited about about this, because it really is the result of a tremendous amount of work that we have got here today. Minister Marit, as well, I want to acknowledge specifically because this is, this is really in his constituency, where these projects are going to be to be located. The result of a tremendous amount of work across government, the result of a tremendous amount of work from Potentia and from Meadow Lake Tribal Council and from for Mr. Watson, Chief Watson, this is a great partnership. And these things don’t just happen.
They happen because there’s a huge amount of work and commitment that goes into it.
So we are really excited to announce two major new renewable power projects here in the province of Saskatchewan, one 200 megawatt new facility, wind facility, the Rose Valley Wind Project, east of Assiniboia, that is going to be constructed as we move forward, in partnership with Potentia and the Meadow Lake Tribal Council and Mistawasis First Nation, an incredibly exciting project.
And to announce the second project as well, a 100 megawatt solar project, Southern Springs project, south of Coronach. The same partnership that has come together through a competitive process, I may add, as well, not selected by me as minister, but through a competitive process adjudicated by SaskPower that has led to this really, really remarkable day.
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And SaskPower is going to be a partner in all of this, in that we are the purchaser through a long term power purchase agreement in both the wind and solar projects, of the energy that’s going to be generated by these particular projects.
And I’m really excited about this for a number of reasons, but I want to talk about a couple of them specifically, and the first one being about reconciliation. This is a commitment of our government, and I can tell you as well, it’s a real commitment of me personally. This is part of the reason why I am in public life, and I would say even increasingly so, a reason why I’m still in public life: the importance of economic reconciliation and showing and making that a reality in practice. It was why, at Trade and Export Development, we created the indigenous Investment Finance Corporation, such that First Nations and Metis as well would be able to participate in projects like this, because there really is a structural barrier to participation in projects like this.
And what it comes down to is it is because of the way the Constitution is structured, it makes it almost impossible for First Nations to actually borrow, and that has to do with how assets are collateralized. So it makes it almost impossible. That’s why we stepped up with the indigenous Investment Finance Corporation, and which has been widely copied across the country, I may say. And I’m glad it has, because that is a mechanism by which First Nation, communities, governments, corporations, can actually participate in the economy. And it was probably far too long in coming. But that being said, we are there now. And you know, this isn’t a specific CFC project, but this is really the end of the sentence. This is how we get to the point of having genuine participation in the economy, which means real economic reconciliation, which means First Nation governments can reinvest those resources back into communities.
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And MLTC have been a shining light in this in this regard, being able to return a million dollars a year in dividends to the nine First Nations that comprise the Meadow Lake Tribal Council, through all of the business interests that MLTC have been able to pursue over now 30 years. It’s an amazing story. I won’t get into all of it. I hope maybe you know chief Norman can maybe speak to that. But it’s an amazing story, one that really is unique across the country.
But I would say from SaskPower’s perspective, this really exemplifies our all-of-the-above approach. And you know, there’s been different elements about that have probably got more attention than others, but we are committed to an all-of-the-above approach at SaskPower. And generating power, we’re going to be seeing what is likely 100 per cent, a doubling of power demand over the next 20 years here in this province, which is a good thing. I mean, it shows it’s because the economy is growing and there’s new projects coming online. But it’s a challenge for SaskPower’s perspective, and that we need to find 4,000 more megawatts of power production and generation. How are we going to do that? It’s all-of-the-above. It’s not either/or, it’s how do we do all of these things. So that means, that means renewables, like this project right here, that means coal, that means gas, that means hydro, that means biomass, of which, again, Meadow Lake Tribal Council have been pioneering the way in that space.
So we are going to be continuing on that path of all-of-the-above. Today is a great example of what that means in action. I’ll let others kind of speak to the more detail about the particulars of the projects, but I just want to end with a congratulations and a thank to the partners who have been involved in this, to Mistawasis Chief Watson, to Meadow Lake Tribal Council, through you, Chief Norman, to the entire team of which many are here today, who I’ve had the chance to work with for two decades now in public life, to Potentia. This is a remarkable partnership. And I just want to say congratulations, and I want to say thank you.
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