Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said it would be a
criminal offence if Premier Scott Moe keeps Saskatchewan’s three coal power plants, which
produce around a quarter of the province’s electricity, open past 2030.
Canadians are being told by
Ottawa and the
international community that in order to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, we must lead by example and cut our meagre 1.5 per cent share of global emissions to zero, ignoring Canadians’ well-being, standards of living and energy security. Yet big emitters like China, India and Germany are not following our lead.
Moving the goalposts from 2050, one part of Ottawa’s net-zero plan is to implement clean electricity regulations (CER) to achieve a “net-zero” electrical grid by 2035, a plan that builds on Ottawa’s 2018 coal power regulations. Those regulations specify the closure of coal power plants by 2029.
Pre-empting the recently announced Canada electricity advisory council before it has even met, Guilbeault has now faced off with Premier Moe, who contends that Ottawa’s unilateral decision to achieve net-zero emissions in power production by 2035 is unrealistic, even unachievable, without causing
massive disruption.
Ron Wallace and Tammy Nemeth: Premier Moe is right to challenge Ottawa’s unrealistic policy expectations to achieve 'net zero' emissions
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“We will not attempt the impossible when it comes to power production in our province,” said Moe. Instead, the premier sensibly proposed to fulfill the original net-zero target by 2050.
Guilbeault immediately
countered the Saskatchewan proposal with a threat: “We’ve regulated the ban on coal through CEPA (the Canadian Environmental Protection Act), which is a criminal tool that the federal government has … so not complying with this regulation would be a violation of Canada’s Criminal Code.”
Moe replied, “When individuals in this province, or any other province, they flick their lights on or their furnace fan kicks in that’s deemed illegal and cause for someone to go to jail, come get me.… We’re standing up for an affordable reliable power supply here in Saskatchewan. None of those are provided by the federal net-zero plan.” Indeed.
Premier Moe is right to challenge Ottawa’s unrealistic policy expectations to achieve “net zero” emissions. An honest, realistic national conversation about the true costs, benefits and consequences of the federal government’s forced energy transition is long overdue and much needed. It’s good that Saskatchewan has chosen to open the door to a rational debate.