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Saskatchewan’s electric utility is reporting a multimillion-dollar loss in its annual financial reports despite receiving a grant from the province’s Crown Investments Corporation (CIC).
In its annual report tabled Tuesday, SaskPower says it incurred a net loss of $114 million for the 2025-26 fiscal year, $240 million under budget.
SaskPower says the loss is driven by its decision to discontinue the federal carbon charge rate charged to customers as of April 1, 2025, while remaining obligated to pay under Saskatchewan’s Output-Based Performance Standards Program.
Last year, the Crown corporation received a $187-million grant from the CIC, which it says supports affordability to customers. CIC Minister Jeremy Harrison told media Tuesday that he supports the corporation’s decision to give the grant to SaskPower to help contend with rising costs for ratepayers.
“We’re committed to addressing that and making investments through our Crown corporations to keep life as affordable as possible for people here in this province,” Harrison said.
But Saskatchewan’s official opposition is pushing back, saying the grant paints a different picture, hiding the scale of losses at the electric utility, which would have been $301 million without it.
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“We’re paying for them through the rate increases that we were already seeing before the rate review panel. We are seeing these costs escalate again through a direct subsidy using other Crown profits to try and hide $301 million of losses at SaskPower,” said Aleana Young, Saskatchewan critic for CIC.
The NDP also wants to see the province take a page from other provinces’ books when it comes to oversight of the Crown utility, pointing to Ontario as an example.
“Let’s have an independent regulator again with these same quasi-judicial powers that exist in other jurisdictions to make recommendations that are in the best interest of the grid and in customers of all classes,” Young said.
The CIC is reporting $173 million in consolidated net earnings, down from the previous two years, both of which were slightly above half a billion dollars.
The province’s holding company for commercial Crown corporations is also reporting a consolidated debt ratio of 66.4 per cent.
SaskTel, SaskEnergy, SGI Canada, SaskWater and Lotteries and Gaming Saskatchewan (LGS) are all reporting earnings in black for last year, with LGS leading the pack, reporting $240 million in earnings last year.
SaskEnergy is reporting $84.4 million in earnings, down from $90.5 the previous fiscal year.
Meanwhile, SGI Canada is reporting $75.7 million, up from $43.2 million in 2024-25.
SaskWater posted $7.9 million in earnings from $8.6 million the year before.
Last year, SaskPower spent a record-high $1.8 billion in capital expenditures, which the utility says was to modernize, expand and sustain the province’s electricity system. This makes up nearly 70 per cent of total capital spending across all provincial Crown corporations.
In the year ahead, Harrison said he is focused on continuing major capital investments while contending with rising costs and increasing energy grid demands.
“There are incredible opportunities that are coming and jobs of today and of tomorrow that are created because of the investment,” he said.
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