Photo courtesy of City of Saskatoon
The Saskatoon Tribal Council and City of Saskatoon are one step closer to signing an agreement for green power generation.
A committee of city councilors says Saskatoon should prepare a Memorandum of Understanding with STC, which would start a feasibility study for the proposed hydro station at the weir.
The proposed cost of such a project would be approximately 62.5 million dollars, which would be funded by the Tribal Council and private sector partners, offset by revenue generated by the power station and funding from other green energy sources. STC’s portion is expected be about one third or 20 million dollars.
Doug Porter is the General Manager for STC and says Saskatoon city council meets in two weeks and he presumes they will accept the recommendation from the utilities committee and then the two sides can start hammering out the details of the MOU.
The next step after that would be for the Tribal Council to raise the capital needed for the project. Porter says STC has talked with their consultant, First Nations Power Authority.
“Until the Tribal Council knew they had something to start working on with the city, it was preliminary to get into those discussions,” he said.
The proposed 60 million dollar station would generate enough electricity for 2,400 homes and could be completed as early as 2021.
If the project was to go ahead, Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark said it would be the biggest partnership between the city and a First Nation.
A separate project related to the proposed hydro project is a whitewater park for the weir but Porter says that STC is not a partner in such a project. He says the Tribal Council’s involvement is primarily with the power station.
Earlier, pre-feasibility and environmental baseline studies concluded the project was technically feasible and is expected to be economically viable.