Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe called the federal government’s net-zero energy goals unachievable and unaffordable on Friday, saying it would hit residents with even higher costs of living.
Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault released draft regulations Thursday designed to clean Canada’s electricity grid, billing the move as key to Canada’s economic competitiveness, transitioning the energy economy and combatting climate change.
The government has set a target of making the electricity grid net zero by 2035, and the regulations are meant to help guide the way.
“It’s unachievable,” said Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe at a media conference Monday. “It’s unrealistic. Those are SaskPower’s words, not mine. Our power utility cannot actually achieve what the federal government sets us up to achieve and it certainly isn’t going to be affordable as it will double the power rates in the province.”
In May, the Saskatchewan government set their own net-zero goals for 2050, 15 years after that of the goals of the federal government.
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“The federal government seems to have a different timeline than what we have put forward in Saskatchewan,” Moe said. “It doesn’t impact how we generate power due to the wording of the constitution.”
Moe said that how a province generates its power is under the purview of provincial governments.
“We put forward a plan that would allow us to run our assets out, run our generation assets out to the end of their life cycle,” Moe said. “To shut them down 20 or 30 years early, there most certainly is a cost to that.”
Federal officials say the new regulations would drive up the cost of energy slightly, but they add that would be offset by the savings expected to come from moving away from fossil fuels.
Environment and Climate Change Canada estimates the national average household energy bill will increase by $35 to $61 per year if the regulations are adopted, but by 2040, only two per cent of that increase will come as a result of the regulations.
“It is going to increase not only our fuel costs but also our energy and electricity costs which will be felt in our personal family households,” Moe said. “It will be felt today and tomorrow, increasingly tomorrow, at the grocery store and at the fuel pumps.”
Like many times before, Moe noted that the Saskatchewan Party believes the federal government carbon tax is one of the most prominent contributors to the raised cost of living.
The federal government plans to cover up to half of the cost of the regulations through tax credits, low-cost financing and other funds, which could mean even less cost is passed onto consumers, Guilbeault said at a press conference in Toronto.
Overall, Canadians are expected to spend 12 per cent less on energy by 2050, government estimates show.
— With files from Global News’ David Baxter.
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