REGINA – Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall is defending the minister at the helm of the province’s smart meter debacle.
Wall said the buck stopped with SaskPower executives, and not Bill Boyd, the minister responsible for the crown electrical utility.
SaskPower CEO Robert Watson resigned from his post over the weekend, just before the release of a damning review of the smart meter project.
The investigation found it was unclear who was calling the shots in the utility’s plan to install new meters.
Wall said Boyd will keep his file, believing the minister has addressed the safety and financial issues related to the project.
“I think it sends precisely the wrong message if a minister who leads on (those issues), takes every effort to make sure everything is out there transparently, pays for it with their job,” said Wall.
Boyd said Tuesday that SaskPower’s settlement with the smart meter manufacturer is strong, despite $5 million of the Crown’s money being spent on researching and developing a new meter that works in the province.
The review found moisture to be the cause of eight smart meter fires in Saskatchewan between June and August.
The minister told reporters that weather was not properly taken into account.
“We have significant swings in weather here in Saskatchewan,” Boyd said. “As a result of that, I think we want to make sure the testing is done in our province, not just to recognize rainfall but the climatic conditions we’ve experienced over the last couple of days.”
Critics said the money is being wasted.
“If this government and that provider didn’t know it rained in Saskatchewan or couldn’t understand the environmental conditions we face here, that’s absolutely ridiculous,” said NDP deputy leader Trent Wotherspoon.
SaskPower has been directed to remove any remaining smart meters from Saskatchewan homes by March 15, 2015.
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