Moe says Sask. has 'tools that we can use' to challenge clean ...

Premier Scott Moe said the current targets set by the federal government to phase out coal and convert to a net-zero electrical grid are unrealistic

Published May 02, 2023  •  2 minute read

(FILE) Premier Scott Moe Photo by Heywood Yu /The Canadian Press

Calling federal environmental proposals “unrealistic,” Premier Scott Moe says the province will face “significant headwinds” in any attempts to meet federal plans to phase out coal-fired power by 2030 and transition Canada to a net-zero electricity grid.

Moe, addressing an energy conference in Regina on Tuesday morning, said the province will soon offer more public insight into how the Saskatchewan government will challenge the proposals made by the federal Clean Electricity Standards (CES). He didn’t offer specifics on Tuesday but  did say he thinks “we’re going to have more information on that in the next number of weeks.”

Moe said that Saskatchewan will not be able to meet the 2030 target to phase out coal or the 2035 target set by the feds to reach a net-zero electrical grid. He placed 2050 as a target date instead.

“This isn’t about a standoff with the federal government, this is about what’s realistic,” Moe said on Tuesday.

Asked if the courts or the Saskatchewan First Act will be the avenues he plans to take, Moe said “we’ll have more details on the tools, ultimately, that we may use in our Saskatchewan plan for sustainable electricity.

“We have tools that we can use and we’re willing to use all of them, if necessary,” Moe added.

NDP MLA Aleana Young, who was also in attendance at the energy conference, said that when it comes to the federal environmental policy for the next decade, there is little daylight between her party and the government.

“The feds are going too far, too fast and 2035 isn’t realistic for a jurisdiction like Saskatchewan,” Young said.

Moe spoke at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference about the importance of protecting the oil and gas, power generating and mining sectors from what he described as “unrealistic policies, ideological policies, versus policies that are much more based in reality.”

He said federal policy to phase out coal-fired power plants by 2030, among others, is “at times threatening the energy security, the continental energy security that you are part of building.”

While not specifying what he meant by the comment, Moe said during his speech that Saskatchewan is a jurisdiction “that is willing to step up and support your industry and support your business and all that are employed within it, and defend it at times.”

That said, change is inevitable, Moe acknowledged. He said the province is working towards “a lower emissions electrical grid and we’re doing that in this province through investments in natural gas and investment in renewables.”

Young said Saskatchewan is a decade and a half behind other provinces as the transition to net-zero inches closer, saying the province has been “dinosaurs on renewables.”

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