Coalition members meet with ministers

Norm park - Estevan Mercury

Members of the Estevan and area Clean Coal Coalition travelled to Regina last Wednesday morning (July 9) to meet with members of the provincial cabinet. They came away from the session feeling a little more optimistic about a clean coal project in southeast Saskatchewan than they did going into the session.

The four members of the Estevan team consisted of coalition chairman Herb Padwick, Mayor Gary St. Onge, Greg Hoffort, secretary-treasurer for the RM of Estevan and Jim Wilson, member-at-large.

The foursome met with Ken Cheveldayoff, minister of Crown Corporations and Dan D'Autremont, minister of Government Services. MLA Doreen Eagles was unable to attend due to family concerns and Lyle Stewart, Minister of Enterprise and Innovation, who was also scheduled to meet with the local group, made just a brief appearance, informing them he had another appointment that conflicted with the Estevan group's assigned time.

"We received some assurances that coal and clean coal will figure into the future and our area is part of that mix," said Padwick on Thursday morning following the meeting.

He said the local group felt compelled to arrange the meeting for a couple of reasons. The recent announcement and follow-up rumours surrounding nuclear power options in Saskatchewan made the local group more than a little nervous as did the fact that there have been no announcements or decisions made regarding a proposed $1.4 billion clean coal, carbon dioxide sequestration project at Boundary Dam.

"We hadn't heard a thing since the project was re-announced this past winter," said Padwick.
The group said they heard from Cheveldayoff that Saskatchewan and Alberta are working on CO2 recovery projects using different technologies and will be sharing the information to determine which one can be used in the future.

"It was generally short on details, but he did tell us that Premier Wall had met with Premier Stelmach (Alberta) on the subject," said Padwick.

"We received some assurances, but at the same time heard that right now, everything is being considered. We're not necessarily anti-nuclear or anti-anything at this stage, we're just pro-coal and we need to protect some jobs here."

Padwick said that both ministers were very positive in terms of future coal based projects but so far nothing had been said about the possibilities of building a 300 to 450 megawatt addition to the Shand Power Station.

The Estevan group took a list of 10 questions with them and presented them to the ministers who promised them a written response to the queries within 10 working days. Padwick said those written responses could tell the local citizens a lot about the government's commitment to a clean coal project in southeast Saskatchewan.

Read More From Park HERE

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