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Premier Scott Moe issued a challenge of sorts after the federal environment minister responded to Saskatchewan’s plan to decide for itself whether to use coal for power generation past 2030 and natural gas past 2035.
Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said earlier this week that violating the 2018 coal regulations, which are through the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, would be against the law and, furthermore, a violation of the Criminal Code.
In response Thursday, Moe said “come get me.”
“If Justin Trudeau’s the prime minister and Minister Guilbeault is the environment minister on Jan. 1, (2030), they can come get me,” he said.
Moe said he’s standing up for the people of Saskatchewan and their access to affordable and reliable electricity, and he would hope this isn’t a country where that would be deemed illegal.
“This isn’t about fighting with the federal government, this is about representing Saskatchewan people and ensuring they have that affordable, reliable access to electricity for decades into the future,” said Moe.
Moe and his provincial government argue that the federal plan to have electricity generation down to net zero by 2035 isn’t actually possible in Saskatchewan and, if it were, would more than double power rates in the province.
The premier said that would be bad for people in the province as well as the industries that provide many of the jobs in Saskatchewan.
“We need to have a competitive power rate to ensure that those industries continue to operate here, and to ensure that those industries that are looking at investing here, most certainly, have that opportunity,” explained Moe.
According to Moe, this situation is an opportunity for the federal government to work with the provinces.
“The first step the federal government has in putting their best foot forward in working with provinces … is to go back to the drawing board with their clean electricity standards, go back to the drawing board with their unrealistic net zero by 2035 target and start working with provinces on what is actually possible and actually working with those provinces on how they’re going to fund what’s possible,” he said.
Details on the federal government’s regulations haven’t been released yet, so Guilbeault argued it’s premature for Moe and his government to say they can’t be met. Those regulations are expected in the next few months.
Guilbeault also said the federal government wants to keep power affordable and reliable for Canadians.
— With files from the Canadian Press
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been amended to correct the date referenced by Moe on which the coal regulations come into effect.