Â鶹ÊÓƵ

Next year should be more than a little interesting for residents of Estevan and area.

More than a few hundred jobs are on the line as SaskPower and their advisers and corporate friends will be pressed to ponder the future on a shortened time-line.

The hurry-up offense imposed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and delivered by Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, quickens the decision-making pace on the clean coal file.

If Boundary Dam Power Station is to remain in operation post 2030, then a decision to move forward with a second phase of carbon capturing technology, will need to be made by the end of next year. Of course, those are our words, not SaskPower’s. Their hierarchy maintains a decision could be delayed as far along as 2019 and still include a decision to implement carbon capture fixtures on Units 4 and 5 at Boundary Dam.

But we doubt they would want to delay the decision-making that late into the game, leaving their employees and the residents of southeast Saskatchewan in a proverbial stew of doubt and anxiety.

On the pro coal file McKenna’s missive did at least acknowledge that clean coal technology existed and was being properly deployed with over 800,000 tonnes of captured and sequestered carbon dioxide proving that point.

Coal is not going away anytime soon in a host of other countries which means technology developed in Estevan can be used on a global scale.

The clean coal technology while growing in importance, is being reduced in price. The more that is learned, the more the current project is tweaked, the more efficient it becomes. An experimental unit at nearby Shand Power Station only enhances those prospects.

In other words, if BD 4 and BD5 get to the construction phase, rest assured, the costs to build and deploy will be significantly lessened. And if the federal government wishes to get involved with a little financial boost, much as they are doing for renewable projects, so much the better.

On the no coal file, we fear that in some corners lobbying and political pressure could force SaskPower et al into decisions they may regret.

Unlike with coal-fired generating plants that are planned, constructed, maintained and replaced using Saskatchewan ingenuity and labour, the renewable markets, manufacturers, maintainance and replacements would more than likely be carried on by out-of-province private corporate interests who would pay lip service when it came to maintaining a provincial presence, much like most of the major oil companies have done for decades. The logo over the 3,000 square foot field offices in Estevan, Kindersley, Weyburn or Lloydminster may stake a claim of a business presence in Saskatchewan, but the license plates and plane tickets indicate decisions being made in Calgary, Edmonton and Houston. The same could happen with a new era of wind turbines and solar panels. How many of them would be built and maintained in Saskatchewan while employing Saskatchewan personnel …  other than on temporary contracts?

There is a lot riding on Premier Brad Wall and those who serve this government in the economy, energy, resources and environmental ministries.

The coal or no coal mandate will have to be determined soon so that thousands who depend on it for a livelihood can plan their future.

The deadline was pushed forward, unexpectedly by Trudeau and company.

Monday’s announcement that the Boundary Dam Unit 3 carbon capture and storage program is being recognized within an equivalency agreement, goes a long way in assuring a local population that coal, clean coal to be more specific, does not have to go away so soon and can, instead, be factored into finding solutions for the cleaning of our environment.