Cumberland House Mayor Ferlin McKay and Saskatchewan NDP Northern Affairs critic Jordan McPhail are calling for provincial action following repeated power outages in Cumberland House and the surrounding area.
In a joint statement, McKay and McPhail say residents have experienced prolonged periods without electricity over the past 24 hours, resulting in food spoilage and disruptions to everyday activities.
They are calling on SaskPower Minister Jeremy Harrison to provide compensation to residents who have lost food because of the outages and to work directly with local leadership to address the reliability of the area’s power supply.
The statement says the Cumberland constituency office and NDP SaskPower critic Aleana Young made a similar request for compensation following food spoilage caused by outages last year.
McPhail and McKay say they have yet to receive a response to that request.
“The people of Cumberland House, just like every community in Saskatchewan, deserve reliable infrastructure, and utilities that are available when they need them,” the statement reads.
The two are also calling for longer-term measures to prevent similar extended outages from occurring in the future.
In a statement to MBC Radio News, the provincial government said the outages were caused by a severe storm that damaged critical infrastructure in the Cumberland area.
The province says SaskPower crews have been working around the clock to restore power and support affected communities, adding the government will continue backing crews working on the restoration effort.