Proposed federal clean power grid regulations unfeasible for Sask., Duncan says

The Saskatchewan government is calling potential federal power grid regulations unfeasible within the required timeline, instead preferring to follow its own plan to overhaul electricity in the province.

Ottawa drafted its clean electricity regulations — part of its climate change plan — and was collecting feedback on them until earlier this month. The Saskatchewan government wrote to Canada's Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault, stressing that the federal government is overstepping and that its regulations, as written, will be costly for Saskatchewan and lead to a less reliable grid.

"It's not a debate about the goal — it's a debate about the timelines and how quickly we can get there," said Dustin Duncan, Saskatchewan's minister responsible for Crown corporations, including SaskPower, during a news conference Tuesday.

"The regulations just are impossible for what they're trying to achieve in Saskatchewan."

The proposed clean electricity regulations, first released last summer, aim to create net-zero emission electrical grids across Canada by 2035. The regulations are part of the federal government's larger emissions goals, including achieving overall net zero by 2050.

The regulations, in particular, will try to minimize emissions from the power sector by 2035, while ensuring electricity is still affordable and reliable for Canadians, according to the federal government's website.

The regulations provide some flexibility, but they would force power utilities to shift to greener energy sources and significantly cut emissions to meet a performance standard — 30 tonnes of CO2 per gigawatt hour, "as measured on an annual average basis," according to the website.

Similar regulations have been released in other Group of Seven countries such as the United States, and it's an economic opportunity Canada "cannot afford to miss," a spokesperson for the federal Ministry of Environment and Climate Change told CBC News in an email.

The draft regulations give more than a decade of cushion to "attract investment and adjust decision-making," the spokesperson said.

The federal government's deadline to submit feedback was Nov. 2. The final version of the regulations will be published sometime next year, the government's website says.

Duncan wrote a letter to Guilbeault, dated Nov. 2, arguing the regulations as written infringe on the province's constitutional jurisdiction of electrical energy, dictating how the grids in each province need to operate within less than 12 years.

The provincial government estimates overhauling the system, per the proposed regulations, would cost Saskatchewan about $40 billion, the letter said.

SaskPower forecasts its rates would have to more than double and many people's jobs could be at risk, the letter said.

Duncan previously raised affordability concerns in August, when Guilbeault revealed the proposed regulations. At the time, local industry experts who spoke with CBC News disputed those claims, suggesting the required transition is feasible.