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Saskatchewan residents are raising concerns about affordability as SaskPower moves forward with two 3.9 per cent rate increases.
The Saskatchewan Rate Review Panel held a public meeting on the utility’s 2026–27 application, which would see increases this year and next, in Saskatoon on Thursday evening.
“This is what’s considered a flat rate increase,” SaskPower’s chief financial officer, Troy King, said at the meeting. “Every rate class will experience the same increase.”
SaskPower says the hikes are needed because of rising costs across capital spending, operations and fuel, including nearly $1.7 billion in annual capital investment and a $153-million increase in fuel and purchased power costs.
Some people at the meeting say the flat increase isn’t fair. One asked King how the Crown corporation could justify a flat increase when residents pay higher rates than large industrial customers.
King said the difference comes down to cost allocation based on the province’s vast land and spread-out population.
“It’s more expensive to serve residential customers because of that distribution,” he said.
Large industrial users are connected directly to transmission infrastructure and are not assigned distribution costs in the same way as residential and small businesses, King said.
Beauval, Sask., Mayor Rick Laliberte is asking for lower rates for communities in northern Saskatchewan due to the lack of natural gas and dependency on electricity, which makes life less affordable for residents. (Trevor Bothorel/Radio-Canada)
Rick Laliberte, mayor of Beauval, Sask., was at the meeting. He said the current rate structure disproportionately affects remote communities in the north.
Laliberte presented the idea of a separate northern rate to the panel, arguing residents in the region face significantly higher energy costs.
“We’re stuck with the urban rate, and it’s going up,” he said.
The rate should be about $0.10 per kilowatt hour, which is about one-third lower than current rates and in line with the rate in Manitoba, he said.
“If our neighbouring province can afford that rate, let’s do it for northern Saskatchewan.”
He said many northern households rely on electricity for heating due to the lack of natural gas infrastructure, driving annual bills as high as $4,600 compared with about $1,500 in other parts of the province.
Laliberte said transmission investments in the north are primarily serving uranium mining projects instead of communities.
“These are the transmission lines that we have to pay for,” he said. “If industry is driving that development, then industry should bear those costs. … That’s not fair.”
Laliberte said northern Saskatchewan faces other unique challenges that will become worse if the higher rates continue, including overcrowding and outbreaks of tuberculosis.
“Give us a break in the north,” he said. “We got tons of resources, forestries being pulled out, mines are being pulled out … give us an advantage.”
NDP critic calls for rejection of hikes
The Saskatchewan NDP is opposing the proposed increases.
Aleana Young, the party’s critic for SaskPower, spoke at the meeting. She said the rate hikes come from mismanagement and a lack of transparency from the provincial government.
“For the entire history of SaskPower, they have been able to manage their finances, their fleet, their capital demands, as well as costs for ratepayers in Saskatchewan,” Young said. “They can no longer do that because of decisions made by the Sask. Party government.”
She said many industries oppose the rate hikes, including the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
“SaskPower is in a state of historic loss,” Young said.
She also criticized King’s presentation to the panel, saying it failed to provide enough transparency on issues such as carbon pricing and refurbished coal plants.
“We do not see the information. We don’t see the accountability or the transparency necessary,” she said. “So, the panel has no choice but to reject them.”
Albert Johnston, the panel’s chair, said balancing the Crown corporation’s needs with stakeholder concerns is difficult.
“The needs of the corporation are significant,” he said. “We have to balance that against the affordability issues for ratepayers in the province.”
The rate review panel will accept written submissions before making recommendations to the provincial government this summer.
