Wall’s inaction leaving coal workers vulnerable

Province needs to prepare for demise of industry, Chris Gallaway writes.

When driving south along Highway 39 as it curves around Hitchcock, you will see the Boundary Dam Generating Station appear on the horizon. For me, this is the moment when I know that I am home; the power plant and its transmission lines were always present in the prairie views around our family farm where I grew up.

That is why I listened with interest last week as SaskPower president Mike Marsh announced that the most recent carbon capture and storage project at Boundary Dam would likely be the last clean coal project undertaken by the company. (Marsh later said, “SaskPower continues to evaluate the feasibility of expanding carbon capture at Boundary Dam.”)

With this decision, SaskPower has admitted what private power companies across North America have been saying for years — that the abundance of cheap natural gas as a fuel source has made new coal and clean coal projects uneconomical.

This economic reality, combined with the actions of subsequent federal governments, will mean the vast majority of Canada’s coal-fired electrical plants will be closed by 2030.

These closures will mean a major transition for Saskatchewan’s power grid by the end of the next decade. Yet, Saskatchewan’s political leaders remain strangely reluctant to talk about what this will mean for coal workers and for the local economies of Estevan and Coronach.

In 2012, the Harper government brought in new coalfired electricity regulations, which put in place end-of-life spans which will close many of Saskatchewan’s coalfired units by 2029. When announcing these regulations, they stated no plan was needed to retrain or support the workers who might be impacted by these plant closures, based on their assumption that workers could be absorbed into the oil and gas sector.

At the time, Brad Wall said nothing to stand up to his federal friends in support of the coal workers who would be impacted.

More recently, the Trudeau government announced a goal of closing all coal-fired plants in Canada by 2030. The premiers from the other provinces that rely on coalfired electricity responded quickly to negotiate with the federal government to protect good jobs and ensure a better coal transition for their provinces.

The premier of Nova Scotia secured an agreement that would allow its newest coalfired plant the flexibility to stay open beyond 2030 during periods of peak demand. The premier of Alberta worked to ensure that regulations would allow for its existing coal-fired plants to be converted to natural gas and continue operating. Alberta went on to appoint an advisory panel to consult with coal workers and their communities to draft recommendations on how to support those impacted by the coming transition.

Yet Saskatchewan remains stuck in the denial phase.

Wall continues to use coal workers as convenient props in his ongoing political battles with the federal government about a carbon tax. He claims to be doing it to stand up for their jobs and for Saskatchewan. Yet regardless of climate policy, the economic reality is that this change is coming. His government’s continued inaction is leaving coal workers and their communities at risk.

Similar coal politics are unfolding in many traditional U.S. coal states. President Donald Trump campaigned loudly on bringing back coal jobs. Many coal workers listened to Trump’s rhetoric. Yet American power companies have continued to make it clear that the economic reality is that those coal jobs won’t be coming back.

Saskatchewan’s coal workers deserve better than denial and Trump-style political rhetoric. They deserve a meaningful and just transition strategy that ensures access to retraining, severance, bridging programs, protection of their pensions and plans to address labour retention and workforce issues.

For more than a century, coal has fuelled the Estevan economy and powered the homes of Saskatchewan families. Coal jobs are some of the best jobs available in rural communities.

What comes next can’t be an afterthought only turned to after these good jobs begin to vanish.

Saskatchewan’s political leadership needs to finally step up and start planning for what the good jobs of the next century will be.