SaskPower lost $172 million, according to Crown annual reports

SaskPower is down a net loss of $172 million, according to the recently released Crown annual reports.

The Saskatchewan NDP questioned why the province released the annual reports quietly.

“I think it’s absolutely clear why they chose to try and slip these financial reports by the public without any scrutiny or accountability,” Sask. NDP Leader Carla Beck said.

“What those reports show is that under Scott Moe’s leadership, our Crowns are bleeding hundreds of millions of dollars in lost profit.”

SaskPower reported a net loss of $172.1 million in the 2022-23 annual report.

“Overall losses were incurred primarily due to increased fuel and purchased power costs and operating expenses,” the report read. “Also contributing to the decrease in earnings was increased storm maintenance and overhaul costs, small modular reactor feasibility studies, and higher interest rates on debt.”

In a press conference on Tuesday afternoon in Saskatoon, Don Morgan, the minister responsible for SaskPower, addressed the media on the Crown reports and why they were not publicly released as per usual.

“This year, we’ve got the byelections underway, which precludes us from doing that. They have to be tabled within three months of the fiscal year-end, which was the end of March,” said Morgan.

“There was no way we were going to be able to have them filed before the byelections, except just by filing them and in notifying people that they would find.”

According to the Crown Investment Corporation annual report, revenue losses of over $350 million were reported between last year and this year, bringing this year’s Crown corporation net earnings to $7 million. However, since 2020, Crown corporation profits have dropped over half a billion dollars.

Morgan said in addition to the $7.4 million, $143 million worth of dividends were paid. 

“We had the drop in SaskPower largely attributable to increase in commodity prices, natural gas, which interestingly enough, has dropped back down since then,” he said. “We also had lower water levels, so we were not able to generate as much hydro and had to backfill with natural gas and with coal.”

The net loss of $172 million for SaskPower adds up to consumers paying eight per cent more for their electricity since last September.

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