BELLE PLAINE - Despite some headwinds, the provincial government is bullish about Saskatchewan's prospects of becoming an energy superpower.
Minister of Energy and Resources Colleen Young gave an upbeat assessment in her visit Tuesday to Mosaic Company’s Belle Plaine potash mine. She pointed to Saskatchewan having the fuel, food, and fertilizer and critical minerals the world needs.
In particular, the general mood of optimism stems from the recent discussions on how to open trade and transportation corridors to move goods across the country.
Young particularly pointed to her conversations at the Energy and Mines Ministers Conference in Prince Edward Island last week, alongside ministers from across Canada.
“The largest takeaway for me was that it is clear that Saskatchewan is leading the charge in many of these areas,” said Young. “A major focus of this meeting was on the need to build a strong, secure and competitive resource sector across Canada and from a Saskatchewan perspective, we are in a great position to help manage that change.”
Young said that during those meetings she advocated for “substantial federal investment in building national energy infrastructure and corridors to transport resource products to tidewater. She also pointed to the need for streamlined and predictable approval of large resource projects to attract investment and ensure Canada's supply chains remain secure and reliable.
Young said the discussions “allowed us as provinces to discuss shared energy and resource issues and brainstorm on how we can make Canada an energy and minerals superpower and it was refreshing to feel the unity in those discussions which I'm hopeful will lead to more access for Canadians to reliable affordable energy and wealth generated by our vast resources. With Saskatchewan's robust and expanding resource sectors, we are and have been positioning province to contribute significantly to Canada's emergence as a global energy superpower.”
When asked what a national energy corridor would look like and what she wanted to see, Young pointed to the need for pipelines and rail capacity.
“Well, as we all know, we haven't had any new pipelines introduced in the last 10 years due to the federal regulatory environment that was in place and the layered on impositions for most of our industries. But it also means rail capacity. I mean, we need to get our products to global markets. And looking at the expansion of our ports, particularly on the West Coast, I think that's something that needs to be considered at this point in time so that those industries that are producing, such as Mosaic here, and then making sure that rail capacity is available when they need it in order to get it to those ports.”
As for the approval process, Young expressed the need to partner with the federal government to ensure that projects “aren't being held up at the second level when they get to that licensing portion under the federal government. We've already had applications in that have been sitting on the books for the last 10 years and just need to be approved to get them moving forward.”
Pam Schwann, President of the Saskatchewan Mining Association, said more rail capacity was something she wanted to see.
“Absolutely. We're looking at one new potash mine coming in that's four and a half million tons, potentially going to eight million tons. We need more rail capacity.
We can get oil onto pipelines, that'll free up some capacity there. But we also have to address some of, you know, labour disruptions that we have, climate resiliency on rail lines as well, and also some of the regulatory impediments in the rail lines and the ports that cause congestion on the rail infrastructure.”
Marnel Jones, Director of Government and Public Affairs for Mosaic in Canada, welcomes the idea of addressing the infrastructure and transportation challenges that have had an impact on their business.
“What we saw in the first quarter of the year was a really cold winter with a lot of snow and wind, and those are not great things to have for us to be loading rail cars and getting them to Vancouver or other parts of Canada,” Jones said.
“And so we're in the process of recovering. But Q1 was really tough getting our products to market, which is why we continue to advocate for increased funding towards our infrastructure in Canada because we operate 365 (days) and we have to get our products to market.”
