NDP Energy and Resources critic Len Taylor said today the Sask Party government remains overly focused on the prospect of nuclear power at the expense of other future renewable energy options. The $3 million report from the Uranium Development Partnership (UDP) is scheduled to be handed over to the government today but Taylor questioned how much emphasis has been placed on the three other sources of energy the partnership was mandated to explore.
“It’s been pretty clear from the start that the Sask Party’s agenda has been to promote nuclear power and to stack the deck of the UDP with pro-nuclear members,” Taylor said. “This singular focus seems to be coming at the expense of other options such as wind, hydro, solar or geothermal energy just to name a few.”
Taylor said the NDP is pressuring the government to consider a variety of alternative energy sources which have so far taken a back seat while the Sask Party forges ahead with its pro-nuclear agenda.
“New Democrats believe that all sources of alternative energy should be examined in the context of environmental sustainability and fiscal responsibility,” Taylor said. “The Sask Party has chosen to focus only on one controversial piece of the future solution and have so far done so with extremely little consultation with the people of Saskatchewan.”
Taylor said he hopes to see alternative options presented to the public as the government begins its long-awaited consultations on future energy production. He said so far the Sask Party has given no indication that the consultations will be anything but a nuclear sales pitch.
“We’re hoping to see a genuine dialogue with the people of our province about the future of energy production,” Taylor said. “Along with nuclear power, the Sask Party has an obligation to provide Saskatchewan people with as much information about other alternative energy sources as it can.”
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Saskatchewan has seen more than 4700 people lose their jobs under the Wall government.
"They’re looking at, for lack of a better word, some surgical tourism. People coming up to British Columbia, spending some time in British Columbia, being able to get the procedure."
- Minister of Health, Don McMorris
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December 31, 2009
Oddly, cuts to other government programs - like culture, or health care, or government services - aren't seen as job killers, but as necessary sacrifices to a government's bottom line in these "tough economic times." The provincial government just cut $1.3 million from its budget, $8.4 million of which came out of "vacancy management." Otherwise known as cuts to public sector employment. -Carle Steel, The Sasquatch
