Coal layoffs another blow to Estevan’s bruised economy

With the announcement of more layoffs in one of Estevan’s biggest industries, the city’s already-contracting economy is taking another hit.

Earlier this week, Westmoreland Mining announced it would be laying off 25 workers from its coal mine near Estevan. According to its website, the mine has 369 employees.

The company reportedly told its employees it was because of lower demand for coal. Much of the coal produced by that mine goes to SaskPower and the Boundary Dam plant.

Roy Ludwig has been the mayor of Estevan for eight years and he also has worked at the coal mine for 40 years. Ludwig said the big drivers of that city’s economy are oil and gas, power and coal, and farming.

“At the end of 2014, (we took) a hit with the oil industry, we’ve been hurting there and bleeding jobs since 2014. And now unfortunately with the coal and power production, with the new regulations, the carbon tax, now we’re hurting in that sector as well,” said Ludwig.

He said everyone is concerned and frustrated with the news, and there are concerns that more jobs will go in the future.

New federal regulations put caps on emissions and seemingly put end dates on the life of current power production plants which use coal. Two of the units at Boundary Dam are set to close down in coming years.

Ludwig said the community was hoping the province and SaskPower would continue on with “clean coal technology”, and that Unit 6 and the Shand power plant could be converted to carbon capture. The province hasn’t made a decision on those projects yet.

“We feel that we have a role to play with coal production and power well into the future,” said Ludwig.

The provincial government has recently tossed around the idea of modular nuclear reactors and Ludwig said he’d “definitely” be in favour of looking at that as well.

“We’re willing to look at all options that will give us jobs down here in the Estevan area,” he said.

The City of Estevan has been trying to find ways of boosting the economy itself. Ludwig said in the short term the city has received some transition funding from the federal government and has been working on bringing more businesses into the community.

He said the city has an economic development officer, a transition co-ordinator, and an incubator to promote new and small businesses that’s just getting off the ground.

“I know it’s incremental, but probably we’re not going to get a corporation or company coming into our community. But incrementally we have to continue to work very hard at getting more small businesses which employ people, and looking at picking up some of the economic development that way,” said Ludwig.

The industry downturn over the last few years hasn’t been good for the community. Ludwig said Estevan has had negative growth every year since 2014. He said, as a leader, it’s not easy to watch.

“It’s never easy to be bleeding jobs (and) bleeding people from our community,” he said. “It’s very hard.”

Ludwig said the city will continue to do its best, working with all the parties it can to turn things around.