Photo courtesy of Canadian Environmental Assessment Registry
The NDP Opposition is asking the Saskatchewan Party government why a $1-billion hydroelectric project for northern Saskatchewan might be put on hold or cancelled altogether.
Yesterday, SaskPower said that the Tazi Twe generating station project at Black Lake might be cancelled because of less power demands in the province due to a slow down at potash mines.
Interm opposition leader Trent Wotherspoon raised the question in the Legislature during Question period and said that when the project was announced, there was a promise of jobs and serve communities in the north.
Wotherspoon went on the offensive saying: “Like pulp and paper in Prince Albert and countless other projects in the north, the SaskParty used them for political theatre before the election, now nothing.”
Wotherspoon said that the needs in the north for an affordable and stable power supply remain and the demand for jobs is there and says that “we need this premier to act”.
The minister responsible for SaskPower, Gordon Wyant, said that decision won’t be made by the board of directors for SaskPower until August.
Plans had been in the works for the project since 2010, with public meetings in 2013, and a band referendum in 2015, giving the project the go-ahead. The project has already undergone an environmental assessment and was given tentative approval from environmental regulators.
It would have been the province’s first hydroelectric project built entirely on First Nations land.