Bill
No. 9
The Power Corporation Amendment Act, 200l
Mr.
Wall:
— Well, thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a pleasure to enter the
debate on Bill No. 9, the amendment to The Power Corporation Act,
June 13, 2001. Mr. Speaker, this is a very important Act that this
session of the legislature is considering. And it’s interesting
to note, Mr. Speaker, I do not believe that the Act was
accompanied by a government press release as many major issues,
major pieces of legislation are. Often, Mr. Speaker, as you know,
the government will table significant . . . when they’re tabling
significant legislation that will fundamentally change the
province, they will also put out a press release or maybe hold a
press conference and tell the people of the province about the
details of this Bill. To my knowledge, Mr. Speaker, to my
knowledge the government did not do it. They didn’t do it in the
case of Bill 9 and so you have to have a couple of questions as a
result of that. The first question is . . . well, maybe it’s an
inconsequential Act. Maybe it just deals with minor issues that
wouldn’t warrant a government press release or a press
conference to talk about the details of it. But the fact of the
matter is that it is a very consequential piece of legislation.
It’s very important, Mr. Speaker, and could fundamentally change
the electrical industry of this province forever. So then the only
conclusion you can draw as to why the government wouldn’t
accompany this particular . . . the introduction of this Bill with
a press release is that maybe they didn’t want a lot of people
to know about Bill 9. Maybe they didn’t want the residents of
the province to know too much about this amendment to The Power
Corporation Act. And if that’s the case, Mr. Speaker, then
you’ll have to pardon Saskatchewan people for asking why? Why
wouldn’t the government want people to know about this Act? The
answer, Mr. Speaker, is that this Act clearly, clearly paves the
way for the deregulation of our electric industry in the province
of Saskatchewan. That’s what this Act is all about. Day after
day when we’ve raised issues of energy and electricity in this
legislature, government ministers have stood up and decried
deregulation. They have criticized what has happened in other
jurisdictions — namely, deregulation. And they were doing it,
Mr. Speaker, ironically enough at the very, very same time that
this Bill No. 9, this deregulation of the electrical industry Act,
was being introduced into the legislature. They continue to do it
as this Bill was debated in adjourned debates, Mr. Speaker. Make
no mistake about it, Mr. Speaker, Bill No. 9 paves the way for the
deregulation of the electrical industry in Saskatchewan. Now
it’s true that I think the Bill was precipitated by the
announcement last year by the then minister for CIC (Crown
Investments Corporation of Saskatchewan) that the city of Swift
Current and the city of Saskatoon — who are the two cities in
our province that had the foresight and the vision not to sell out
their electrical utility to the Crown, to SaskPower — that this
government would allow those cities to in fact purchase their
power from someone other than SaskPower. The minister of SaskPower
last session stood in the legislature and announced that the
monopoly restrictions on whom Swift Current and Saskatoon could
buy electricity from would be lifted, and in fact that they could
buy power from whomever they chose. Well, Mr. Speaker, in order to
accommodate that, the government of course had to make it possible
for other potential suppliers of electricity to get their
electricity to the cities of Swift Current and Saskatoon in the
event that they chose another supplier other than SaskPower. And
so we see that clearly that’s part of the reason for Bill No. 9.
But it goes much further, Mr. Speaker. People should understand
that it goes much further. Because in addition to providing the
mechanism for the cities of Swift Current and Saskatoon to
purchase their power and then transmit that power from sources
other than SaskPower, it also paves the way for the deregulation
of the electrical industry. And it begs the question: why has the
government been so silent about it? Why on one hand have they
criticized ad nauseam the deregulation
approaches of other jurisdictions, like the province of Alberta?
Why have they done that when they have introduced a Bill to
deregulate, when they have introduced a Bill to deregulate the
electrical industry? Anybody who has followed the news . . . and
the member for Regina South reads the newspapers. He follows the
news very closely; he’s very aware, he’s very aware of current
events. He will know that the argument, the discussion they’re
having in Alberta with what went wrong there is framed around not
the structure of the company that’s delivering the electricity
or the gas, but the structure of the industry, i.e., that it is
deregulated, that it is a deregulated industry. And, Mr. Speaker,
that’s what this Bill will do here in the province of
Saskatchewan. So the government introduced this Bill, Bill No. 9,
into the legislature knowing that it paves the way for
deregulation. They didn’t
issue a press release. Not a word about it to anybody. I think it
would behoove this government to stand up and explain, explain how
this deregulation Bill avoids the pitfalls of deregulation in
other jurisdictions. And the member for Regina South says he will
enter the debate, and I look forward to that. And we look forward
to asking these questions in committee, Mr. Speaker. And those
will be the questions that we have to ask of this government. will
indeed deregulate the industry in the province of Saskatchewan.
Mr. Speaker, if you take a look at section 8.2 of this Bill, that
particular section will allow third parties or companies to
transmit electrical energy over the transmission lines of
SaskPower. And there you have it, Mr. Speaker. I mean, right there
in a nutshell is a clear indication that this government is
readying the province for the deregulation of the electrical
industry. In section 9.1, Mr. Speaker, they introduce an amendment
into section 9.1 that also clearly points the way to deregulation.
So does section 38.2. It’s all through the Act, Mr. Speaker.
It’s all through the Act. And we have not heard word one of
assurance from this government that their deregulation of the
electrical industry will indeed avoid the pitfalls, of the
experience of Albertans, and indeed other jurisdictions such as
California that are still in the news today, Mr. Speaker. So we
will be looking for the answers to those questions in committee.
And more to the point, we will be looking for answers from the
government as to why — as to why — they didn’t tell anybody
about this Bill to deregulate the electrical industry. It’s
passing strange, Mr. Speaker, that they wouldn’t issue their
normal press release and have a big press conference about a very
weighty piece of legislation that will fundamentally change the
electrical industry in the province. But maybe it’s not
surprising after all, Mr. Speaker, because this is the government
that has stood up on countless occasions and indicated their
unequivocal opposition to any privatization at the same time that
they were in the backrooms planning the sell-off of 20 to 30 per
cent of SaskTel; when they were in the backroom of completing the
privatization of the former SaskComp; the privatization of Husky
Upgrader shares; the privatization of Cameco shares. All along,
Mr. Speaker, standing in this legislature and in town halls across
the province saying they opposed privatization, and in the
backrooms cutting deals and selling the assets of the people of
the province. Is that what this Bill is all about, Mr. Speaker?
That’s a question that we’re going to have because they’ve
also decried deregulation in any form, as they’ve stood up in
this House. And they’ve met with people across the province and
quietly, without any fanfare, without the normal attendant press
releases and media events, they introduced Bill No. 9 into the
legislature of this session, Mr. Speaker. Bill No. 9 is all about
deregulation. And so, Mr. Speaker, with those remarks,I would be
happy t o move the adjournment of debates on this Bill.
Some
Hon. Members: Hear, hear! |
