SMRs: SK Party KOCH & uranium/power plants

[Oscar]

Sask Party leadership candidate Alanna Koch says world market access is 'key for agriculture'

[ https://www.discoverhumboldt.com/ag-new ... griculture ]

Agriculture News SK October 18, 2017 by Glenda-Lee Allan Vossler

Saskatchewan Party leadership candidate Alanna Koch has been busy on the road talking with party supporters.

During her campaign stop in Swift Current yesterday, she met with about 100 party supporters and members - including some farmers and ranchers.

She says Saskatchewan is the most trade-dependent province in the country with a diverse portfolio of natural resources to manufacturing, adding access to world markets is key for agriculture.

"That’s fundamental considering that we are a giant in exports", Koch said. "I think moving up the value chain, seeing that really exciting change on the value added. I do look at canola and how we’ve seen a transformation of our agricultural economy there, what else can we do on the value-added side, focus on ingredients you know those proteins, starches and oils doing what we can in government to encourage that."

Koch says continued investment in research and innovation is important.

She says we need to make sure agriculture has access to all the tools and technology that we need to have the right kind of regulatory climate which needs to be focused on science.

Koch also talked about the Federal government's carbon tax, which she said she’s opposed to the Carbon Tax noting the carbon tax does nothing to drive down carbon emissions.

"Agriculture has been a solution," she said. "If you think about innovation, what we've done as far as equipment innovation, how we are taking a better more responsible approach to environmental impact form agriculture. You look at our energy centre some of the changes there has been phenomenal in innovation and technology."

She notes Saskatchewan exports uranium to Ontario which allows them to produce clean energy which they get to take advantage of while we are charged for export, transportation and production of uranium.

She says that calculation needs to be reconsidered by the Federal Government (Emphasis Added. Ed.)

[Oscar]

Sask. Party leadership candidates face off in front of packed convention in Saskatoon

[ http://thestarphoenix.com/news/politics ... -saskatoon ]

Alex MacPherson, Saskatoon StarPhoenix | Last Updated: November 4, 2017 7:14 PM CST

Sask Party candidates tell why they should be leader of the party

The Saskatchewan Party’s executive director is defending a leadership campaign debate that left the audience restless and failed to address one of the biggest scandals in the party’s 20-year history.

Held at the party’s annual convention on Saturday, the debate found the five candidates vying to replace outgoing Premier Brad Wall address carbon pricing and health care, among other topics, but not controversial land deals at the Global Transportation Hub.

Tina Beaudry-Mellor mentioned during the debate that the GTH was part of the reason the party has struggled to shore up support in urban ridings, and Gord Wyant told reporters afterward that it is one of the subjects most party members want him to address.

But the party’s longtime executive director Patrick Bundrock said the questions asked at this and two earlier debates were submitted by party members and “chosen across topics of relevance” for the same members, and that all five have previously addressed the scandal.

“There’s still three more debates to go. (We) haven’t ruled out anything yet,” Bundrock told reporters following the debate, which generally featured broad agreement between Beaudry-Mellor, Wyant, Ken Cheveldayoff, Alanna Koch and Scott Moe.

Moe told reporters he and the other candidates are addressing questions on an enormous range of topics — including the ongoing RCMP investigation into the GTH land deals — every day as they travel the province in search of support.

Asked whether the format, in which candidates responded to 10 questions and were able to use a limited number of “interjections,” should be changed to allow for more robust debate, Bundrock said he didn’t think so.

“I thought the format has worked extremely well and we’re beginning to see more of the interjections happen, but … you have five great candidates all talking to the same pool of voters and who agree, probably, on 90 per cent of the issues.”

That was evident on Saturday, as each of the candidates worked to distinguish themselves from the others without straying too far from their basic fiscal conservatism policy positions designed to appeal to the party’s voter base.

(Photo: Candidate Gord Wyant speaks during the Sask. Party leadership debate in Saskatoon on Saturday, Nov. 4, 2017. Kayle Neis / Saskatoon StarPhoenix )
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“I think we all have to remember we’re all colleagues on that stage and, at the end of this, we all have to be pulling on the same rope because we’re all members of the same party,” Wyant told reporters, echoing comments made by the other candidates.

There were, however, a handful of new ideas presented at the debate.

Cheveldayoff suggested that the province could consider consolidating healthcare, education and social services into a new ministry aimed at improving the lives of children. Speaking with reporters afterward, he questioned the viability of it.

Koch, meanwhile, told reporters that the province should consider reopening the discussion about using Saskatchewan-mined uranium to fuel nuclear power plants once a new generation of small-scale reactors is sufficiently well-developed. (Emphasis Added. Ed.)

Beaudry-Mellor suggested that MLAs be expected to spend more time in their constituencies knocking on doors, while Wyant proposed moving the party back toward the political centre.

The Sask. Party’s next debate is scheduled for Nov. 16 in North Battleford. The party will elect its new leader at a separate convention in Saskatoon on Jan. 27.

amacpherson@postmedia.com
twitter.com/macphersona

[Oscar]

It's still “NO NUKES IN SASKATCHEWAN!”

Published in the Wadena News February 26, 2018 - Page 4

Since learning last year about the $1.1 million case study of the Small Modular Reactor (SMR) being conducted at both of Saskatchewan's universities, the industry has been very active in pushing this 'new' technology forward.

We know that Ontario Power Generation (OPG) has been working with Sask Power to explore a 'pan-Canadian approach' to the development of a 'fleet of small modular reactors' (SMRs) for coal-dependent provinces such as Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Or, to produce the Very Small Modular Reactor (VSMR) suitable to provide electricity to 'far-flung mining operations and remote communities currently dependent on diesel generators in northern Ontario, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut'. Apparently, the industry is concerned with having to deal with multiple First Nations, local governments and environmental institutions, especially the two new federal departments recently put in place to protect Indigenous relations!

All to meet the demand for 'clean electricity' as Canada attempts to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

However, nothing about Small or Very Small (nuclear) Modular Reactors is clean, sustainable or cheap! Inevitably, taxpayers will be on the hook for the billions needed to realize this pipe dream of a 'fleet' of them scattered across the country which, while being transported on a flat-deck covered with a tarp - look just like a dumpster - quickly and easily installed (underground or in a large storage building) on site!

But, the most sinister aspect remains: there is yet no safe, permanent method of disposal and storage of the radioactive nuclear waste which, regardless of their size, these nuclear reactors will continue to produce lethal material to be stored under- or above-ground, leaking into our air and drinking water, emitting radioactivity for hundreds of thousands – even millions – of years!

Does Saskatchewan's new Premier have the courage and wisdom to put this archaic 'technology' to rest once and for all, say “No nukes in Saskatchewan!” and put our money into developing safe, clean and sustainable renewable 21st century energy?

Or, is that also a pipe dream?


Elaine Hughes, Chair
Quill Plains (Wynyard) Chapter
Council of Canadians
ARCHERWILL, SK