Saskatchewan says the federal government is trying to bribe residents of the prairie province with their own money
Saskatchewan Crown Investments Corporation and SaskPower Minister Jeremy Harrison accused the federal Liberals of using carbon tax revenue to fund a $265 million clean electricity commitment.
Federal Energy Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said funds are supposed to go towards developing solar power, small modular reactor (SMR) research, grid interconnections with the United States, grid-scale battery storage, and transmission upgrades.
In a statement reported by Pipeline Online, Jeremy Harrison argued that the funding merely returns carbon tax revenue collected from SaskPower customers.
“Today’s announcement from the Future Electricity Fund is simply the return of carbon tax dollars collected from SaskPower customers by the Liberal/NDP federal government that is required under the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act,” said Harrison.
According to Harrison, the funds are nowhere near the $483 million collected from Saskatchewan taxpayers by the federal government.
“The federal government has needlessly increased the cost of power for Saskatchewan people and we continue to call on the federal government to eliminate the carbon tax and return the $483 million of Saskatchewan carbon tax dollars they continue to hold in the Future Electricity Fund,” Harrison told Pipeline Online.
Ottawa has said that the new funding would lead to the creation of 130,000 jobs in the clean energy sector by the year 2050.
Saskatchewan is currently embroiled in a legal battle over the carbon tax with the federal Liberals.
After suspending the collection of the carbon tax, Saskatchewan agreed to send Ottawa half of the money the federal government claims the province owes in levies pending the results of the case.
