Seven Stars Energy Project will produce power for 100,000 Sask. homes

Six Indigenous partners and Enbridge have all come together to build one of the largest wind power projects in the province, enough to power 100,000 homes.

The Seven Stars Energy Project is a collaboration between Enbridge and Six Nations Energy Development LP. located southeast of Weyburn.

The seven stars represent Cowessess First Nation, George Gordon First Nation, Kahkewistahaw First Nation, Pasqua First Nation, White Bear First Nations along with the Métis Nations of Saskatchewan and Enbridge.

A subsidiary of Enbridge will develop, build and operate the 200 megawatts of electricity production facility.

The consortium of First Nations and Métis governments will have the opportunity to get equity ownership of at least 30 per cent of the project.

Pasqua First Nation Chief Matthew Peigan said on Monday any revenue the First Nations get from this venture will go to their communities.

“They (the revenue) go back to the First Nation to enhance programs and services – housing, education, health, youth, elders programs where we need to add more resources,” he said. Between the five First Nations, Peigan said that’s about 20,000 people. This agreement would be meaningful and create economic wealth for their nations according to Peigan.

President of the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan Glen McCallum echoed those sentiments, talking about how much a deal with Cameco in his home community of Pinehouse Lake helped.

“The pre-school, daycare, childcare, wellness centre, the school, the clinic and our elder’s program, the recovery lake program, we’re going great compared to how we used to be … it’s night and day now in regards to how we run our community,” explained McCallum.

Funding for the project

The equity ownership stake for the consortium is being backed by a $100 million loan guarantee from the provincial government’s relatively new Crown Corp., the Saskatchewan Indigenous Investment Finance Corporation (SIIFC).

Indigenous organizations can’t use any assets on First Nations as equity, so SIIFC was created to help facilitate large projects like this one.

It’s the first project the SIIFC will be playing a role in. Minister of Trade and Export Development Jeremy Harrison said it’s been a lengthy but good process.

“We wanted to make sure we had a great project, and this is going to be deeply successful and impactful for all of the partners involved,” said Harrison. The minister said he believes this is how energy resource projects are going to be conducted in the future.

It’s not clear how much the final project will cost. Enbridge’s Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy and President of Renewable Power, Matthew Akman, said it’s likely going to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Therefore, the amount the consortium will have to put in isn’t known and, as such, it’s not known how much its ownership equity would be. The minimum is 30 per cent, but after the $100 million loan guaranteed from SIIFC other funding sources would have to be found.

Peigan said now that Monday’s announcement was made, the federal government can be made aware and invited to participate.

“Show me the cash,” Peigan said to laughs from the assembled crowd.

Working on wind power

Akman said the project is well advanced but there is more work to do. He said the company has assembled a bunch of land and done environmental studies, though it’s not fully permitted yet.

“We need to go through all those steps on the environment and make sure we do that properly,” said Akman.

Minister responsible for SaskPower, Dustin Duncan, also said work needs to be done over the summer on the power purchase agreement.

The company is targeting a final investment decision next year. Akman said it would normally start construction shortly after that. The project is expected to be up and running in 2027.

Akman said the project will likely create a lot of cashflows, saying there’s a lot of value in the electricity it will produce.