REGINA – Competition that’s good for the industrial goose should also be available to the agricultural gander, say critics of SaskPower’s plan to boost farm power rates.
“Competition seems to be a gate that swings open for the big guy but stays shut for everybody else,” said Canadian Federation of Independent Business prairie spokesperson Dale Botting after the rate hikes were announced.
SaskPower chair Jack Messer said boosting farm and home rates while cutting rates to big industries is necessary because future deregulation may allow industries to get cheaper power from out of province, leaving farm and home owners with higher bills. And even if big industries decide not to buy from elsewhere, they may cut their power use drastically or produce their own, Messer said.
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But Botting and Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities president Sinclair Harrison said they will be upset if only steel plants and pulp mills get to enjoy the benefits of a deregulated market.
“Competition in the end may lower everybody’s price, but let’s have full competition,” said Botting. “How can SaskPower allow you to be competitive on the industrial side but refuse competition for others as well? To us, that’s not fair.”
But Messer said outside power companies won’t likely want to fight for city and rural customers because they are heavily subsidized. Instead, incoming power companies will want to pick the big industrial customers of SaskPower, Messer said.
Messer said SaskPower rates will always be higher than rates in Manitoba and Alberta because Saskatchewan has a power line network larger than the other two provinces combined.
Liberal leader Lynda Haverstock said some of SaskPower’s $80 million annual profit should be used to reduce the increase.
