Ryan Meili

Of all the conversations I’ve had about climate change, the most eye-opening are with farmers. They see the changes in growing seasons, wet years that are wetter, dry years that are drier, floods and fires and changes in weeds and wildlife. They know that we have to act to slow climate change and to adapt to new realities, using the best of crop science to prepare for the inevitable changes in production.

Many prairie farmers have also seen the value in participating in the transition to renewable energy. As I travel the province, people proudly share their experiments with wind and solar energy and energy efficient building. And I meet so many more who would like to make these changes, who see it as the right thing to do and a smart way to save money, but who just can’t cover the up-front cost.

That gap between those who want to participate and those who can means we’re missing out on a huge opportunity. We have the best conditions to produce solar energy in the entire country. We have abundant possibilities in wind, geothermal, biomass and other emerging technologies, not to mention the energy savings available through retrofitting and energy efficient new buildings. We also have SaskPower and SaskEnergy: publicly owned crown corporations operating in the public interest that have ability to change the landscape of energy production. Despite these advantages, we’ve fallen behind. The Sask. Party government has failed to act in any meaningful way, opting for expensive, experimental mega-projects like the billion-and-a-half-dollar carbon capture boondoggle, instead of choosing the most affordable and effective ways to reduce emissions.

Unlike the current government, Saskatchewan people are ready to act. Over 80 per cent support a transition to renewable energy. But for too many, the cost of change is too high when they’re already having a hard time making ends meet.

It’s time for us to show leadership. That is why I’ve proposed a new program: Renew Saskatchewan. It’s a plan to tackle climate change, reduce our power bills, create new jobs and increase our supply of clean energy. With Renew Saskatchewan, your home, farm, business or town hall could be assessed, and you would get a recommendation of the best changes available. This could be new windows, a high-efficiency furnace or a solar array on the roof of the machine shop. Along with that assessment would be an estimate of the time it would take to pay off those improvements out of the savings they produce.

Then – and this is the key part, the feature that gets rid of the cost barrier and makes this an opportunity for everyone – you would get a loan to cover the cost of the work. This loan would cover the changes needed and you could repay it just by paying your power or gas bill – at a lower rate than you pay today. Once the loan is paid back, your bills would either be next to nothing, or you may even be making money depending on how much energy you’re producing.

There are examples in Saskatchewan’s history that show Renew Saskatchewan could be implemented effectively. One of the most well-known examples is rural electrification, a signature development brought in under the first CCF government, and Tommy Douglas’ proudest achievement. This was a financing plan where farms paid back the cost of getting transmission lines over time through their power bill.

Another very successful program was the Family Farm Improvement Branch, which helped modernize the home quarter, assisting farms to go from relying on outhouses and wells to indoor plumbing and safe drinking water. Both programs started with an assessment of that farm’s needs and included an opportunity to do some of the work themselves and pay less.

Renew Saskatchewan will create thousands of local jobs in manufacturing, installation, retrofitting and maintenance. It will reduce power bills immediately and lower them to next to nothing over time. It will create revenue opportunities for farmers, homeowners, small towns and reserves through a new approach to net metering that will allow producers to sell extra electricity back to the grid. Renew will increase Saskatchewan’s supply of clean electrical power and significantly reduce our use of energy and our carbon emissions. And it will create a revolving fund that can be used over and over to support more homes, farms, businesses and take advantage of new opportunities in the fast-developing field of renewable energy.

Saskatchewan people have shown time and again that we can face great challenges with creative, homegrown solutions. We can rise to the occasion of today’s great challenge, turning crisis into opportunity as leaders in the transition to a healthy, sustainable economy.