The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The opposition NDP is sounding alarms over Saskatchewan's rapidly rising electricity hikes. If a proposed rate hike at SaskPower is approved, power bills will end up being over 38 per cent higher than in 2009, says the NDP. 'With such a strong economy, it's frustrating to families that the government's Crowns have to turn to Saskatchewan people to pay more and more,' said Cathy Sproule, opposition critic for SaskPower, in a news release. SaskPower has applied for a 15.5 per cent rate increase over three years. The government took $120 million from SaskPower in 2012, and rung up more than $115 million in cost overruns on a carbon-capture project SaskPower will have to pay for, says the NDP. 'Saskatchewan people are already doing their part for the economy and our own household budgets,' Sproule said. 'The government should hold up its own end of the bargain _ not force ratepayers to cover off more government expenses.' The NDP says the province has cancelled Saskatchewan's goal of offering the lowest-cost utility bundle in Canada _ a promise Sproule said should have been easy to keep in a strong economy with profitable Crown corporations. In Manitoba, the governing NDP continue to face criticism of its own over escalating hydro rates.
