Saskatchewan joins 9 provinces and territories to form national energy corridor

The province joins nine others in a new national energy corridor deal designed to boost power transmission, energy security, and economic growth.

The provincial government has signed an agreement to create a national energy corridor, along with nine other provinces and territories.

During legislative proceedings on Wednesday, CIC Minister Jeremy Harrison announced the “historic” agreement.

“This is really very significant,” he said.

According to the minister, the negotiations have been lengthy, with Saskatchewan at the centre of discussions.

“Ontario and Eastern Canada, Saskatchewan and Western Canada, are really in a position to support our neighbours by having allocatable, dispatchable baseload power, which really uniquely positions us in Western Canada and Ontario as a large net power exporter in Eastern Canada,” he said.

The goal of the new agreement is to ensure better energy security across Canada by improving electricity connectivity between the provinces.

“We have never really in this country before had a national approach, with provinces and territories working together, and the federal government as a partner in that process, in putting together a plan for what long term transmission is going to look like,” Harrison said.

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“Transmission is the process by which power is produced at a generation facility and how that gets to your house or place of business so that when you turn on the light, the lights go on, that is really what encompasses transmission,” he explained.

For Saskatchewan, better transmission means new economic opportunity, supporting growing power demands, and improving the reliability of the grid.

“What this means for Saskatchewan in creating the infrastructure to be able to export our generation around the country … is going to pave the way, now being a net power exporter, but to be a nuclear power generation powerhouse,” Harrison said.

Nunavut, Newfoundland, and Quebec are the only provinces and territories who haven’t signed onto the agreement.

In response to the announcement, NDP MLA Aleana Young said she is pleased to hear that resources are being “put to policies, regulations, and framework, to ensure that energy and services can flow freely across Canada.”

“It’s fundamentally important to Saskatchewan and to Canada that we connect provinces, harmonize standards, build, and do so strategically,” she said.

She said provinces talking to each other is progress but said she does not see the national strategy yet.

“We’ll be looking for it in the federal government’s forthcoming electricity strategy, as we’ll be looking for that significant investment into interprovincial interties and into Saskatchewan’s electricity sector,” she said.

“If the federal government truly wants to build a strong economy in Canada, grow energy and job security for Canadians and for folks here in Saskatchewan, the best bang for their buck is investing in Saskatchewan’s electricity sector.”