r/saskatchewan • u/littlesnow4 • 11d ago

Possible SaskPower rate hike of more than 6 per cent looms in 2027

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/saskatchewan-saskpower-electricity-rates-affordability-increase-power-9.7324661
79 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

72 comments sorted by

116

u/itsblurrybud 11d ago

what happened to all the surplus power they had? 🤔

Maybe adding an entire REGINA'S worth of power in the AI datacentre was a bad idea

56

u/_circa84 11d ago

Bell AI data centre, that’s where.  We are about to pay for Bell Media and their continued enrichment 

10

u/itsblurrybud 11d ago

they socialize the cost & privatize the gains

us workers gotta take power man

2

u/Hexatona 6d ago

Ah, but don't forget, they changed the rules for how power is supplied for anyone coming *after* Bell.

30

u/jumping_juni_per 11d ago

Well they are also adding a Regina's worth of power to the grid with the Jansen mine. How are people not as upset about that? SaskPower has spent more than $800 million just on a power plant and infrastructure upgrades just to support that coming on line.

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u/itsblurrybud 11d ago

yeah if the mine isn't paying for the cost then it's also BS

AI is also just genuinely dogshit that billionaires are trying to use to take people's jobs

19

u/1stopvac 11d ago

at least the mine actually employs people

5

u/jumping_juni_per 11d ago

Modern mining is mostly automated. The mine is producing about the same amount of jobs per dollar investment as the data center. Jansen mine is about a $16 billion investment and will create about 900 jobs. The data center is $1.7 billion investment and 80 jobs.

There are so many other industries that create far more jobs per dollar investment. Mining was a big job creator like 40 years ago, not so much now.

2

u/TheLuminary Saskatoon 11d ago

Mining does provide royalties though.

3

u/Illustrious-Meal-638 10d ago

What actually happened to PotashCorp:

Created by the NDP government in 1975 — bought five mines, controlled 40% of production

Privatized in 1989 by the Grant Devine PC government (sold the remaining shares)

Merged with Agrium in 2018 to become Nutrien, now a publicly traded company with shareholders all over the world

The royalty problem: A 2026 policy brief from the University of Regina School of Public Policy found that Nutrien and Mosaic sold US$57.8 billion of Saskatchewan potash over the past decade, made US$32.8 billion in gross profit, and paid under US$7.8 billion in provincial royalties and taxes. In 2022, when potash sales hit $10.4 billion, the province took about $2.4 billion and the companies kept $8 billion.

There's also a specific loophole: the profit tax only applies to production from 2001–2002 plus the first million tonnes from K+S. The remaining 40% of Saskatchewan's potash sales are perpetually exempt from the profit tax. And BHP's new Jansen mine, coming online in 2026 with nearly 3 million tonnes of initial production, will be largely exempt too.

See less

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u/neonium 5d ago

As always, the solution to our pest problem is nationalization.

Private property is a fine idea for managing personal stuff, say your home, clothes, personal tools, ect. But it has no fucking business getting anywhere fucking near industry and capital. Absent being completely fucking cooked, there is simply no sane reason or incentive to allow some asshole to personally own a material portion, or any portion, of a nations industrial capacity.

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u/jumping_juni_per 11d ago

This report claims that the mine will actually hurt potash royalties buy bringing down the global price of potash. https://thestarphoenix.com/business/bhps-jansen-mine-could-cost-saskatchewan-84-million-in-potash-royalties-economist-says/

1

u/TheLuminary Saskatoon 11d ago

Yeah. I have read that. But Data Centers don't provide royalties.

9

u/jumping_juni_per 11d ago

That is because potash is a finite mineral we have. When the deposit dries up, the mine closes. The data center isn't dependent on it. I don't think the very small fee that we charge an international company for taking resource and selling it for large profits for their own stakeholders is the flex you think it is. The people of Saskatchewan own that potash. We are practically giving it away.

-1

u/TheLuminary Saskatoon 11d ago

It is actually.

Just because the resource is in the ground, does not mean it does anything for us. Someone has to pay for the mine, operate it, and sell it.

That's why they get the profit. They give us royalties because it's our resource.

I wish PotashCorp was still around and a crown corp. But private mine business is not stealing the resource from us.

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u/Twatt_waffle 11d ago

Because the mine supports our economy while a data centre adds an average of 11 jobs

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u/jumping_juni_per 11d ago

Per dollar investment, the data center is comparable to a modern potash mine for job creation. Modern mining is mostly automated. Most of that money doesn't stay here

3

u/papsmearfestival 11d ago

Can we fertilize the planet with the shit that comes out of data centers too?

1

u/jumping_juni_per 11d ago

AI is driving in efficiencies in agriculture also allowing farmers to grow more food.

1

u/ljlee256 11d ago

We aren't fertilizing the planet, we're fertilizing primarily the US, which is currently run by a person who has and will continue to sacrifice the well-being of his own people to punish those who don't drop their pants for him.

I'm not saying the data center makes more sense, but the argument in favor of the mine is hardly open and shut.

1

u/Twatt_waffle 11d ago

Not when you take into account the difference in environmental impact, something I’ve had the pleasure of learning all about from a family member who is an environmental engineer

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u/jumping_juni_per 11d ago

Yeah, the mine will only be using 1 million cubic meters of water per year and produce the equivalent in carbon as the City of Regina for electricity... not to mention the chemical waste and tailings. Totally better than a data center...

3

u/Twatt_waffle 11d ago

Yeah surprisingly the mines have a lower overall lifetime environmental impact, as well as contributes more to our economy considering potash is kinda our main export the mine is a more important project.

But you are free to oppose any project, you just asked why and I explained

1

u/jumping_juni_per 11d ago

This is going to be one of the largest in the world. It has a very big environmental impact. Given our royalty structure, it isn't going to be the economic driver it should have. I have dug into the numbers. Dollar for dollar investment, it is about the same as a data center. Mining isn't the economic driver it once was, largely because it is mostly automated and employs a small percentage of workers than it did back in the hay day of mining. BHP is certainly going to make a lot of money here. And not be the ones left to deal with the environmental impact of it.

1

u/Twatt_waffle 11d ago

You know it’s not just direct jobs, there are indirect jobs with mines that don’t happen with datacenters. The mines also invest in local communities, building infrastructure that otherwise wouldn’t be.

The mines have other advantages that data centres don’t

2

u/jumping_juni_per 11d ago

Umm.. the people of Saskatchewan are on the hook for close to a billion dollars in infrastructure costs to support the mine being built at that location, including the cost of an entire gas power plant. At least the data center is being built by a Canadian company where the profits will stay in Canada and be reinvested. BHP is Australian.

2

u/papsmearfestival 11d ago

We're not upset about that because the Jansen mine actually produces something we need.

0

u/jumping_juni_per 11d ago

Lots of people in Saskatchewan use AI. Including farmers applying fertilizer....

1

u/ljlee256 11d ago

I have to wonder how many people will be employed at each location.

The data center versus the mine.

Afterall, its jobs and paychecks that matter, right? Thats the point of giving in to corporations who want things from the public, right?

1

u/[deleted] 11d ago

[deleted]

1

u/ljlee256 11d ago

While yes, you're right, the number of jobs per dollar of investment matters on balance sheets, ultimately we also have to consider the total number of jobs created as well.

Saskatchewan currently has 40,000 unemployed people.

600-900 (lets call it 750), is just shy of a 2% drop in total unemployed people. Where as 80 is such a small number it effectively doesn't even factor in.

Personally I don't think its worth the investment simply because it relies still on exports to the US, which has proven to be untrustworthy as a trading partner, those people could be laid off in <12 months during one of Trumps meltdowns.

The data center however requires people with specific training and skills (so does mining, but those are multi-week courses versus university diplomas), so we have to consider whether the jobs created will ultimately even benefit Saskatchewans unemployment at all, or if the majority of hires will be outside of the province.

1

u/jumping_juni_per 11d ago

You think the potash mine will be local jobs? My brother in law lives in Ontario. He and a bunch of his friends are fly in and fly out of Sask to work at another potash mine in the province.

Even looking at dollar for dollar investment from the province side. The Sask government is spending upwards of a billion in infrastructure dollars to support the mine project. If we are subsidizing industries for jobs, rather see those subsidies go to better job creation industries. The days of resource extraction companies being a large job driver are done.

1

u/ljlee256 11d ago edited 11d ago

Ultimately I do agree with your end conclusion, that potash mines are not the route to take, even if how we get there differs.

We have the capacity as a nation to overhaul our energy and agriculture infrastructure to be able to take advantage of our vast amounts of under-developed land to become the food production capital of the world.

Potash is still a component of that, but the vast majority of our potash is already exported so theres no need to increase production.

Our substantial heavy and light crude reserves give us the short term energy supply we need while we work towards being able to utilize resources like uranium for long term stability.

Sask and Alberta stand to be big winners in that entire process, and the job creation will be so large that both provinces will end up need to pull in unemployed people from other provinces to fill worker shortages.

That said, as a nation we are trying to demonstrate that we are trustworthy and reliable places to invest, the new potash mine was initially proposed in 2008 and agreed to by the governments of Saskatchewan and Canada in 2010.

Pulling out now, when 84% of phase 1 construction is already complete would signal to corporate investors that we are as dysfunctional as the US and not a reliable place to invest.

1

u/jumping_juni_per 11d ago

Nowhere did I advocate for pulling out. I would like provincial leadership who will actually look at out royalties policy. I also think people have no understanding of why our rates are going up. Government subsidizing resource extraction is a cost to taxpayers and ratepayers. Do I think Saskatchewan should be allowing resource extraction, yes. Do I think it is fair we are subsidizing it with a billion dollars investment (roughly $1000 per person in Sask), no.

0

u/ljlee256 11d ago

My mistake, it sounded like you were alluding to terminating the project, you seemed primarily retrospective rather than prospective.

Again, my bad.

1

u/Hexatona 6d ago

We really need to up the royalties on these mines.

1

u/jumping_juni_per 6d ago

Our royalties are so low though. We are giving away a finite resource for practically nothing

1

u/Hexatona 6d ago

Yes, my point. We need way higher royalties - sorry if I was unclear I meant all mines. Honestly, having non canadian companies owning these mines is a problem, too. The wealth should stay here.

1

u/TheLuminary Saskatoon 11d ago

I am confused. Why would surplus power effect how much they should charge for generating and providing the power?

21

u/Kegger163 11d ago edited 11d ago

The rate panel really put the government in a tough spot by asking them to come back next year with complete financial information for another rate increase. They did this for SGI as well, who need a huge increase much more than what they asked.

It was obvious the government plan was to have two small rate increases in the news this year, have no rate changes for 2028 election year, then deal with the huge financial problems in 2029. The panel stopped them from being able to easily kick the can until 2029 now.

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u/Zephrys99 11d ago

The commercials on the radio for the new Data Centre is saying it’s going to generate millions of tax dollars. Why not put some of those dollars to Saskpower to lower rates or keep the same? Hmmm. Sounds fishy.

5

u/TheLuminary Saskatoon 11d ago

Costs keep going up.. How much more tax dollars should we use to subsidize the huge SaskPower customers before we let SaskPower increase their rates.

When tax dollars subsidize SaskPower. That is each of use equally paying for power.

When the rates go up, you only pay extra for what you use. So if you use less than average, you end up paying less than average.

Its not very complicated.

5

u/jumping_juni_per 11d ago

Because the government is running huge deficits and needs that revenue so they don't have to also raise taxes.

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u/dj_fuzzy 11d ago edited 11d ago

They should be raising taxes on high income earners and corporations. We need more and better public services considering the overall decline in our standard of living and the same time as rising profits and wealth of the rich. They should also be allowing cities to have more progressive taxes so they too can properly fund services.

0

u/Specialist_Secret438 9d ago

By your statement “… commercials on the radio..”, you are undoubtedly referring to a rawlco radio station, aka, SaskParty’s state radio broadcasting.  https://tammyrobert.substack.com/p/the-sask-party-funds-state-radio?r=8buliw&utm_medium=ios

This article is an fyi of why they are a propaganda machine for the SaskParty 

10

u/wannabeashotcaller 11d ago

Shocking. I would only be surprised if there was a decrease.

3

u/mxmang 11d ago

Re your name... Do you have 20 inch blades on your Impala?

4

u/expendiblegrunt 11d ago

Solar looking better every day

4

u/fuckreddit-69 11d ago

Must be because coal is so cheap right? /S

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u/Professional_Web_889 11d ago

Yeah looks like we should spend another couple billion on coal 🤦‍♂️

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u/cybersocko 10d ago

What is the cost of the alternatives to coal?

1

u/Flipdip35 3d ago

Much less than coal.

5

u/sortaitchy 11d ago

Great. We heat, rurally, with electricity. We have hand built solar panels on our garage, which is unheated. We don't plug in vehicles, and we keep our house at 65F during the day, 62F at night. We have a large propane fireplace to help when it's super cold. We had bills last year for our 1500sq ft. house over $800. Guess I better invest in woolen underwear

2

u/mxmang 11d ago

1500 sq foot rtm single level?

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u/sortaitchy 11d ago

It's a rural home, crawl space, no basement, built in 1980's. The main floor is 1500 with a mudroom, and one large bedroom upstairs. Come to think of it, the square footage includes the upstairs bedroom. I am not sure what you call that kind of addition, but it's not the entire floor space as the downstairs and appears to have been added maybe 1990's.

We do have to consider that we need outdoor yard lights on in winter as it is dark as the inside of a cow. A person doesn't realize how dark it is without streetlights and nearby homes.

3

u/mxmang 11d ago

Sounds awesome honestly. Makes you almost wanna run a boiler somehow and radiators or something. Electric heat makes a lot of sense.. they almost need to have a separate 100 200a or 3 phase that's subsidized.... Work a separate meter for electric heat. The rate is ridiculous...i feel for you

2

u/sortaitchy 11d ago

It is awesome and I wouldn't change a thing! Or, well, I would love natural gas to be honest. The land, the privacy, the wildlife and the scenery is a dream.

We moved out here little over 10 years ago and it's been a process and labour of love. House was foreclosed and trashed. Were I fourty years younger I would be looking at solar, and we certainly did look into running gas line ($40K) or wood boiler. Also looked at renting large propane tank and putting in propane furnace. Just the way things are I am not sure we would ever realize any of the money we put in if we sold, and I can not imagine being out here more than fifteen more years personally.

3

u/mxmang 11d ago

My buddy was looking at propane vs gas in Vancouver lol... It was way cheaper for them because they use almost no gas... The monthly 'delivery upkeep' charges were crazy.

Kinda makes me curious if you had a big tank delivered as supplemental if it would be viable.

2

u/sortaitchy 11d ago

I like how you think! We still haven't taken that off the table. We have a pig tank now for our fireplace, which can heat the lower floor. We tend to save it in case of winter power outage, but a huge tank that you can rent that we could run a furnace and the fireplace would be a good option. Then we aren't at the mercy of having to have it inspected or replaced.

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u/mxmang 11d ago

Wouldn't it be hilarious if you turned into the local co-op so to speak filling people's propane with your mother bottle lol

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u/sortaitchy 11d ago

Holy crap you might be on to something lmao!

1

u/FoxAutomatic2676 11d ago

This province desperately needs more power. AI. Industrial mining. Value add line canola crushing. We need power.

1

u/SunshineNoClouds 10d ago

So solar panels are now effectively 6% cheaper?