‘Double whammy:’ Eyre says Sask. has been slammed by another federal regulation

The Saskatchewan Party and the NDP have found something to agree on: The province is standing firm against new federal regulations on oil and gas emissions.

Under the policy framework, the industry will need to reduce emissions by more than a third or purchase offset credits through a cap-and-trade system.

Saskatchewan Justice Minister Bronwyn Eyre said Thursday that Ottawa won’t admit the potential harm the regulations could cause.

“The federal government has been very anxious to imply that a difference of two percentage points won’t mean a production cut,” she said. “Of course it’s a production cut by default. And it’s always been that way and they know it.”

The framework said the sector will need to reduce its emissions 35 to 38 per cent from 2019’s levels within the next seven years, but by purchasing credits or contributing to a “decarbonization fund,” the requirement could be lowered to cutting 20 to 23 per cent.

More details are expected when draft regulations are published next spring, and the final rules are expected to be in place by 2025.

Eyre said the Economic Assessment Tribunal, which was announced in November, will be adding these regulations to its research pile.

“The important thing is to wait and see what the tribunal comes with in terms of economic harm,” Eyre said.

“I will be genuinely interested to see where that lands, where a group of experts who look at this for a number of months, what they will analyze and quantify the economic harm to be, because honestly it is worthy of significant, deep analysis.”

Eyre said if the tribunal finds that these regulations — or the methane regulations announced earlier this week — will cause economic harm to the province, further action will be taken.

She said the announcement Thursday is a “double whammy” from the federal government, which she said refuses to communicate with the province.

“Consultation, collaboration and briefing? A five-minute call does not amount to that, so we are taking this very seriously,” Eyre said.

She thinks there will be undeniable economic impacts and is worried for the future.

“It’s always going to lead to more unsavoury energy producers around the world selling their goods and getting momentum,” she said.

“I think we’re being failed by both levels of government and I would expect them to be reasonable to get to the table and start working out a deal,” said Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck. (Lisa Schick/980 CJME)

Saskatchewan NDP agrees

Opposition Leader Carla Beck said she shares similar concerns with Premier Scott Moe, but wants to see real action.

“We’ve been clear about our concerns about federal intrusion into matters of natural resources,” Beck said. “We’ve expressed concerns about our ability to meet those targets.

“But what we’ve also repeatedly called for is the federal and provincial government to get to the table and start looking at a path to reducing emissions (and) to get a plan together instead of having fights in the media.”

She wants to see Moe get off X (formerly Twitter) and get back to the drawing board with Ottawa.

“This isn’t going to be fixed by the premier sending out spicy tweets,” she said. “There needs to be a plan and it needs to be built with both the federal and provincial government at the table.”

Beck thinks Saskatchewan is being failed by both levels of government.

“What we see right now is the worst of both worlds,” she said. “Costs are increasing and we see no plan to reduce emissions in this province. In fact, we have a premier who says he simply doesn’t care about those emissions rising.”

Beck said the federal and provincial government owe the people of Saskatchewan a willingness to work together.

— With files from The Canadian Press and 980 CJME’s Lisa Schick