Belanger Pans SaskParty Northern Nuclear Proposal

Belanger Pans SaskParty Northern Nuclear Proposal

Tuesday, August 26, 2003 at 15:12

Saskatchewan’s Northern Affairs minister is dismissing a promise by the Saskatchewan Party to look into nuclear expansion in the North if the party comes to power.

The Saskatchewan Party candidate for the Cumberland riding, Winston McKay, says his party would go ahead with developing a nuclear power plant in the North if it was backed by careful planning and research.

But Buckley Belanger wonders who would come up with the one billion dollars needed to establish such a plant, since the Saskatchewan Party is traditionally opposed to government investment.

Belanger also says there’s no one in the private sector that’s interested in such a project.

Belanger calls McKay’s statements on nuclear power in the North “unrealistic” and “not well thought out”, and says a nuclear power plant would take at least 10 to 12 years to develop — if it had the support of the northern people and passed strict environmental rules.