Coal Revival: Estevan-Big Muddy MLA Lori Carr never gave up hope that coal could be saved

 

 

ESTEVAN – When you walk to the end of the lane of Lori Carr’s acreage south of Estevan, there are several things that dominate the skyline.

Beyond the hay bales is a pumpjack and a dragline. And beyond that dragline, you can see Shand Power Station in the distance. Over to the left, Boundary Dam Power Station is even closer.

Her acreage is directly adjacent to Westmoreland Mining’s Estevan Mine. Down the road a short ways live several of her family members. Her ancestors lie in a graveyard in the shadow of the mine.

This is her home. And for the MLA for Estevan-Big Muddy and Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, Seniors and Rural and Remote Health, fighting to keep coal going has become the dominant theme of her tenure as a member of the legislative assembly and as a cabinet minister.

Make no mistake, her voice was one of most significant when it came to rescuing Saskatchewan’s coal-fired power industry from certain death under federal environmental regulations. She bares the scars of those who criticized her over the years for their perception that she had not done enough to battle a federal juggernaut, as if a local MLA could turn around a national policy to get rid of coal-fired power for good. But now, a month after the provincial decision to rebuild, not shut down, SaskPower’s coal fleet was made public, this is indeed happening. Instead of shutting down the dragline, mine and power stations across the road from her house, they will continue to keep the lights on for decades to come.

Pipeline Online spoke to Carr in depth on July 16. It was just under a month after the announcement by Minister of Crown Investments Corporation Jeremy Harrison, who sent a letter to SaskPower employees letting them know of the government’s intentions to literally keep the coal fires burning.

• 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

 

From hopeful to demise

After 10 years on Estevan city council, Carr was elected MLA for Estevan nine years ago. Back in 2016, things were still looking quite hopeful for the coal industry, as just two years earlier, the Boundary Dam Unit 3 Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage Project went online. Carbon capture was being considered for other coal-fired units, including the Shand Power Station and Boundary Dam Units 4, 5 and 6. And 2030 seemed like a long ways away.

Asked when the optimism changed, Carr said, “I guess when I first got elected, the new regulations hadn’t come in from the federal government. The carbon tax wasn’t such a big deal at that point in time. Things were just different in 2016.

“It wasn’t too terribly long after that that the talk started. So probably a couple of years, really, I guess, when that team came around from the federal government. I think they called themselves the Just Transition team. And I remember sitting in a room full of SaskPower and coal mine workers up at the Beefeater Plaza, and that group that was there talking about what transition would look like. They really didn’t have any answers or any concrete information for the people that were in that room, and it was a very frustrating meeting, not just for the people that work in the industry, but for myself, because as a provincial government, it’s not like they engaged with us. They just decided this was the road that they were going to go down period.”

Jody Dukart, International Auditor/Teller for United Mine Workers of America told a similar tale to Pipeline Online, noting that the people who came to Estevan couldn’t figure out why the hotel had electrical plug-ins, necessary to keep vehicle block heaters going in frigid temperatures. He, too, explained that the group was essentially clueless.

Carr said that meeting was full, as it should have been, “Because it really did have a lot to do with what the future of this community would look like.”

• 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

 

Not the obituary, but the cancer diagnosis

It was around this time, in late 2018, that the International CCS Knowledge Centre, a SaskPower-affiliate, released a report saying that carbon capture could be implemented on Shand Power Station for 67 per cent less, per tonne, compared to the BD3 project. A few days later, then SaskPower president and CEO Mike Marsh came to Estevan on Dec. 6 and told a Chamber of Commerce public meeting that SaskPower would not be proceeding with additional carbon capture projects for BD4 and 5, and any decision for Shand would be put off until 2024 or 25.

 

It wasn’t the obituary for Estevan, but it was the metaphorical cancer diagnosis. At least that’s what the discussions sounded like at the conclusion of the meeting. Without carbon capture, federal regulations would require the eventual shut down of the entire coal-fired power generation fleet with the exception of BD3 by 2030. The likelihood of keeping a mine open for one medium-sized generating unit was improbable at best, so everyone knew if Saskatchewan lost coal, we were going to lose all of it. At the time all three coal-fired power stations had a capacity of 1,559 megawatts of generation across seven generating units.

In early 2019 SaskPower signed an equivalency agreement with the federal government which would allow it to eke a few more years out of Boundary Dam Units 4 and 5 beyond their federally mandated shutdown dates of 2019 and 2021. But the deal required the province to add an additional 3,000 megawatts of renewable energy, principally wind and solar, by 2035. Keep in mind that the typical power load for SaskPower during spring and fall is around 3,000 megawatts. But, as time would reveal, Alberta’s experience doubling its more wind and solar capacity to 7,514 megawatts has proven to be utterly unreliable. When it is needed the most, on the hottest and coldest days of the year, wind, in particular, often goes to next to zero output. At times, both wind and solar output combined has fallen to zero.

Carr said Marsh’s comments on not going forward with additional carbon capture was premature. “At that point in time, carbon capture was so new, still the only one in the world, and we still are the only one in the world that has a post-combustion unit on a coal-fired unit.

“But the results weren’t good at that point in time, but it was new technology. And we continue to work on that technology. And when I say we, the workers at SaskPower, continue to tweak the technology, the amine process, what went into actually making things happen, and it is much better today than it was back then. So I’m not sure at that point in time why Mike Marsh would make those comments. I mean, having said that today, the results are much better. It took years to perfect that. It’s not perfect yet, but it’s definitely much, much better than it was. And, I mean, I would argue that it is an acceptable rate.”

She added, “They hadn’t even given it a chance at that point in time. They hadn’t seen what it could look like in the future.”

As for whether SaskPower had much support for coal in recent years, Carr said officials were working within federal regulations and the confines of the law.

• 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

 

Turning point

The big turning point in coal’s future, according to Carr, was when the federal government under then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the carbon tax carve-out for home heating fuels. That was the chink in the carbon tax armour Saskatchewan was able to take advantage of. The reason Saskatchewan lost its carbon tax case at the Supreme Court of Canada was because the law was to apply to all provinces. But now, if exceptions were to be made for clearly political reasons (Trudeau had 16 Atlantic Canada Liberal MPs standing behind him when he made the announcement on Oct. 26, 2023), Saskatchewan had its chance.

 

Carr said, “Once Trudeau actually made that change for Atlantic Canada, and it changed what the Supreme Court actually ruled on, right? It was no longer a consistent ruling. It was no longer a consistent rule for everybody across Canada. He changed the parameters. So it either was, I guess an existential threat, which was their argument for everybody in Canada, or it’s not. You can’t just carve out Atlantic Canada at one point in time and tell the rest of the country, ‘This doesn’t apply to you.’”

Shortly after that, Saskatchewan went on the offensive, initially by cutting the carbon tax on home heating via SaskEnergy, a Crown corporation, which meant the province could do things that private corporations could not.

Saskatchewan First Act and the TSN turning point

It has been clear the Saskatchewan Party Government has been moving to set the stage for this coal decision for several years. One of the first moves was the white paper released by Premier Scott Moe called “Drawing the Line,” which laid out how 11 federal climate change policies could devastate Saskatchewan’s economy with a total impact of $111 billion by 2035, and that was before the Clean Electricity Regulations were factored in.

The next was the Saskatchewan First Act, introduced in the fall of 2022 by then-Minister of Justice and Attorney General Bronwyn Eyre. It reasserted provincial constitutional jurisdiction over power generation, as provided by Section 92A of the Constitution Act.

That, in turn, set up Economic Impact Assessment Tribunals, the first of which looked into the Clean Electricity Regulations, and found them to be devastating to this province.

• 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

 

Not a short road

So it wasn’t a short road to the decision. Asked when the Saskatchewan government came to the realization they would not be able to shut down coal in 2030, Carr said, “I think we’ve been having conversations over the past 10 years about how realistic is was to being able to shut down coal or not. And I think it really was obviously the carbon tax and the cost of the different variables that come into play. But it really was that carve-out that Trudeau did for Atlantic Canada that gave us that legal option to start reversing some of the stuff that was happening, because what that decision was based on is no longer valid.”

She added, “It was really quite an interesting time for our entire caucus to watch that happen,” noting that Trudeau was finally admitting that the policies were not as rock solid as first made out to be.

“Let’s not forget Scott Moe and the Saskatchewan Party government was the first government to step out in front of every other province and start that fight for not just Saskatchewan people, but for Canadians. Unfortunately, we lost it at the Supreme Court, but that decision was based on the fact that it was a free it was a fair policy based on for all Canadians. So yes, the moment he carved out for Atlantic Canada, it was like, ‘Okay, this is like a TSN turning point. Now we can start fighting back on this again.’”

The Saskatchewan First Act, with its non-partisan tribunal, was key, Carr said. “The Saskatchewan First Act is really important because it’s an independent tribunal that actually evaluates the economic harm of policies put in by the federal government. And I guess if you took the time to read that, it would show clearly the economic harm on the province of Saskatchewan from the policies that are put in place.”

During this time, Pipeline Online published in excess of 100 stories about the unreliability of wind and solar, both on the Alberta grid, but also the Saskatchewan grid. Carr said, “I would actually give updates on to my cabinet committees, and several of them actually had already read them, because everybody was paying attention, right? And it’s just like, here we go. Another story about Alberta.”

A frequent thread of those stories was how Alberta’s wind generation, which went from 2700 to 5,688 megawatts capacity in just three years, would often fall to next to zero, or even zero output. And solar power output during the dark days of winter was dramatically reduced, especially compared to its high output days in summer. But even then, the sun still goes down every night. Alberta had seen more “grid alerts” over the last three years than the previous two decades. The biggest changes? Alberta shut down the last of its coal fleet and doubled its wind and solar fleets.

“Policies matter, and we just had a joint caucus meeting with the Alberta MLAs here, probably about a month ago, and one of the conversations was they wish they could turn their coal plants back on, but everything has been retrofitted to gas, and it’s just not economically feasible to be doing that at this point in time. Obviously, the change was made under a different government. It happened very quickly and very succinctly, and by the time the new guys got in, it was done,” Carr said.

 

Reaction to announcement

Carr said it was important in letting the employees of SaskPower know first, on June 18. She said, “I think that’s important, that Minister Harrison was intentional in that and letting the employees know first that their jobs were going to be safe for years to come.

“Some people didn’t really appreciate that there wasn’t some, you know, I guess, great big press conference and letting people ask questions about it, but out of respect for the employees, they’re the ones that have really been put through hell this past 10 years – the uncertainty all of that. So giving their respect to them, and letting them know that first, and letting it settle in with them – the texts that I got that day of thanks, it was amazing. It was amazing, even from people that have given me a hard time, and rightfully so, because this is their future. And it was, you know, being destroyed, saying, ‘Thank you.’”

• 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

 

Scars

Asked about the scars, she said, “I think what I’ve done over the years, and what I’ve managed to be able to do, is to keep reminding people, even though those regulations weren’t allowing us to burn coal at that point in time, is to keep reminding people the importance of a diverse electrical grid, baseload power. And this is nothing that I have to convince anybody in this community. They understand that to keep the lights on, we need baseload power. But to keep reminding the officials at SaskPower, and my colleagues that while it’s great to have green energy, it’s not reliable. We can’t count on it on those minus 40 days when there’s no wind and there’s no sun. We still need that baseload.

“And so keeping reminding all of those individuals, even though it looked like the writing was on the wall and coal was no longer going to continue, in my mind, I said to myself, ‘How can it not continue? How can we possibly transition down the road to nuclear, and where are we going to get our megawatts from in the meantime? We need them.’”

In recent years, during the wintertime and on the coldest days, SaskPower has seen up to 44 per cent of its power come from coal and another 44 per cent from natural gas. Those are numbers that come directly from SaskPower, and have been reported numerous times by Pipeline Online. Without coal and without exaggeration, Saskatchewan people would have literally been freezing in the dark.

Carr points out that the federal Clean Electricity Regulations would require natural gas-fired power genration to shut down as well by 2035.

Installing carbon capture which with much higher capture rates than BD3 has ever managed would be the only allowable alternative, according to those federal regulations.

• 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

 

Running out of time

The reality is that SaskPower has been running out of time to replace coal. The first 300 megawatt small modular reactor isn’t expected to be online until 2034 at the earliest – and that’s if Saskatchewan does indeed sanction the project. Saskatchewan would need five such reactors to replace its coal fleet, which would take many years to build. Additionally, Ontario a few months ago sanctioned the construction of four such reactors, whose total price tag is almost exactly equal to Saskatchewan’s entire 2025 provincial budget.

Saskatchewan has been building large-scale single unit natural gas plants, with its third 370 megawatt plant under construction at Lanigan and expected to go online in 2027. But its expected price tag, $1.7 billion, is now expected to be more than double the $825 million cost of the nearly identical plant that went online at Moose Jaw in December, 2024. Saskatchewan would need to build four more plants like that to replace its coal fleet, as the Lanigan facility is largely expected to supply the BHP Jansen potash mine project.

With the shutdown of coal by 2030 due to federal regulation imminent, SaskPower was rapidly finding itself painted into a corner, without a replacement for those megawatts. Asked about this, Carr said, “What I would say to that is we need to look at what it costs to actually build these facilities. And that is what we did look at.

“Obviously, our last gas plant that we built come in pretty much double over the budget. And so we’re going to build a 300 megawatt gas plant for $2 billion or we can refurbish a 300 megawatt coal plant for $200 million. You know, the numbers may move. They may go up, they may go down, but when you look at those numbers for the taxpayers of the province of Saskatchewan, and for the price that you and I are going to pay on our power bill, how do we build gas plants and still have uncertainty five years down the road from that?”

She added, “So you go from something in service in 2024 something’s going to be in service in 2027 – three years, project price has doubled.”

As for why, she said, “It literally is the supply chain. It’s the cost of the material. It’s the length of time it’s taking to come. It’s all of that stuff that’s a little bit out of our control. You know, supply and demand. People are building gas plants and so this does cost more.” She said you have to ask SaskPower why the costs have ballooned so much.

• 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

 

Nuclear needs to be affordable

The Estevan area, either Boundary Dam Reservoir or Rafferty Reservoir, has been identified as the possible site for Saskatchewan’s first small modular reactor. Both are in Carr’s riding.

Asked about Ontario’s cost for the same model of reactor, Carr said, “We always knew that nuclear was going to be more expensive, no question about it, right? But those that’s the analysis that’s going to have to take place as we move forward. And we say eventually we’re going to bridge into nuclear, but that does still need to be affordable for the people of the province of Saskatchewan.

 

“So what does that look like, and how fast does it roll out? Other provinces are going to be be going first, and hopefully from lessons learned, and maybe economies of scale, prices will come down. I know that European Union countries are actually investing in these as well. So like with carbon capture, we were the first one out of the gate – a costly adventure turned out to be successful. In the end, someone else is going to take the lead on this first.”

Does the coal decision give Saskatchewan more time, and more breathing space, to get to nuclear? Carr said, “This absolutely gives us a lot of breathing space to get to that point. We will continue to burn coal, and we will continue to try and provide that reliable, affordable energy for the people of the province.

“Obviously, for my constituency, it gives our community that opportunity to breathe. We still have a lot of economic development that has been spurred because of this conversation. People looking outside of the box. What else can we do in Estevan? I’m talking coal to graphite. You know, if that takes off, wouldn’t that be fantastic for the community of Estevan? Still being able to use a resource that is right in our backyard that we have an abundance of, but diversifying from traditional use of coal.”

• 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

 

Coal costs effectively nothing

Back around 2018, it was rather difficult to find out just exactly how much Saskatchewan receives in coal royalties. It doesn’t appear as a budget line item like oil or potash.

That royalty is important, because for nearly all the coal it burns, the government of Saskatchewan owns the coal. That means it is literally paying itself for the fuel for those power plants. It was Carr who finally dug up the numbers and provided them to then-Pipeline News.

That number now, according to Harrison, is about $25 million. But again, because its essentially going out of one pocket of the government (SaskPower) and into another (general revenue), Harrison says the coal is effectively free.

 

SaskPower does pay Westmoreland to mine it. That number was $313 million in 2024-25, but a large portion of that money stays in Saskatchewan, as salaries to the miners in Estevan, Bienfait and Coronach. But last year we paid $316 million for natural gas for our gas-fired power plants, of which 92 per cent comes from Alberta (Two years ago, it was closer to $450 million).

With the additions of the Great Plains Power Station at Moose Jaw and in 2027 the Aspen Power Station at Lanigan, the volume of gas is going to increase notably. And with LNG Canada going online June 30, the price of natural gas on the futures market looks like it will nearly double over the next several years. So SaskPower is going to be paying a lot more for gas in volume, and likely in price, too.

 

To that, Carr said, “I think the fact that we have a resource, right in the ground, that the people of this province own – So it virtually costs us nothing to take it out of the ground, because we do pay ourselves royalties on it as it comes out, and it goes back into the general revenue fund for the province of Saskatchewan, which really goes back into the people of Saskatchewan.

“So we should be using a resource that virtually costs us nothing, in facilities that we already have built, that are 100% paid for at this point in time. Yes, well, we have to refurbish them, but it’ll be at the fraction of the cost of a new gas plant at this point in time, in which, if regulations stay as they are, those will become obsolete in 2035.”

She noted, “In my opinion, the whole point is we should use the resources that we have and the facilities that we have while we actually take the time to do our due diligence and do what is, I guess, reliable and affordable for the people of Saskatchewan, until we can bridge to something like nuclear, which is considered green energy, right? Because that’s the whole goal at the end of the day.”

• 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

 

Diverse power

Carr said, “Having said all of that, I think it is still important to have a diverse power baseload for the province, because if something happens like, I don’t know who, I don’t know what, would happen that you couldn’t take the coal out of the ground for a certain amount of time, it’s good to have those gas plants to rely on as a backup generator, for lack of another term. That’s the whole point of not putting too much into wind and not putting too much into solar, because they’re not reliable at all points in time, and we know they’re much less reliable at all points in time compared to gas and coal. So having that diverse electrical grid is important for the province.”

 

Enhanced oil recovery

Now that coal-fired power generation is not going to disappear in four years, five months and 10 days, it allows the province the opportunity to reconsider carbon capture for the purposes of expanding oil production through CO2-enhanced oil recovery. Asked about that, Carr said, “There will have to be a business case to be putting enhance oil recovery on any of the refurbished units moving forward. And of course, that would be a conversation that Minister Harrison and probably Minister (Colleen) Young will have with industry to see what kind of partners they can become. Who would the offtakers be?

“There has to be a business case for all of that, for everybody involved.”

Impactful

Asked if this is the most impactful energy decision the Government of Saskatchewan has made in the last 10 years, Carr replied, “I think, without a question, it’s the most impactful. And when does common sense kick in? When do people start using it again? And I just think this decision at this point in time is common sense.”

• 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

 

Thankful and hopeful

Carr said, “I guess over the years, people ask me questions about my job and what I do and all of that, and I always tell them my first job, first and foremost is, I’m the MLA for Estevan. And I guess now Estevan-Big Muddy, and when I’m making decisions or I’m taking items forward, I always have that first and foremost on what would my constituents want, and so, without a question, this is one of the biggest issues that I have been discussing over the past nine years with my colleagues, and to see progress, and not just progress, but amazing progress, happen on this front and to give the certainty to the people of this constituency and the people that work in this industry, both power production and the coal mining sector, the surety that they’re going to have jobs for years to come, it just makes me really proud and really happy in the job that I’ve been doing for the constituents.”

She added, “I’m just really thankful for all of the organizations around, whether it be the unions or the businesses and those that continually kept talking to me throughout the years, to ensure that I did go forward and put their voice forward and on exactly what was happening here in Estevan. And it didn’t go unnoticed by myself absolutely, but for my colleagues to hear what was happening on the ground here was so important. So just thank you so much to the community for standing there with me as we went through this together.

“I should add that I certainly did not do this alone. I would be remiss if I did not thank Minister Jeremy Harrison for bringing an item forward to cabinet recommending this new direction.  And of course, Premier Scott Moe and my cabinet colleagues or supporting the item brought forward.”

Asked if she ever game up hope, Carr said, “No, I don’t think I ever did give up hope. Because I guess when you think common sense-wise, I didn’t see any way that we could actually shut those units down and have enough power to power the province in any reasonable amount of time.”

 

• 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