Letters: Potash tax threat exposes meagre return for Sask. resource

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Saskatchewan political leaders and commentators characterize a potential U.S. import tariff or retaliatory Canadian export tax on potash as “destructive” and “damaging.”

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The industry’s financial reports tell a different story. Nutrien, the largest potash company, sold nearly four million tonnes to the U.S. and seven million tonnes offshore in the first nine months of 2024.

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Because sanctions exclude Russian and Belarusian potash from the U.S. market, Nutrien was able to charge an average price per tonne of $287 there versus $183 offshore. Both markets were lucrative because it costs the company only $102 per tonne to extract potash from Saskatchewan.

If Nutrien had to pay a tariff or export tax of 25 per cent on U.S. sales, it would have received $215 per tonne, still above what it accepts offshore. At that price, profitable production would continue for the American market as it does for the offshore market.

A border levy would simply redirect most of the extra profit on U.S. potash sales to Washington or Ottawa. This profit should go to Saskatchewan people who own the resource.

In the first nine months of 2024, Nutrien collected profits of $1.3 billion from Saskatchewan potash, but paid only one-fifth to the province: $62 million of royalties and $210 million of mining taxes.

Rather than railing against a hypothetical export tax on potash, we might insist that Ottawa return the proceeds of any such levy to the province. More fundamentally, stronger provincial royalties and taxes are needed to collect a fair return from potash without federal assistance.

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Erin Weir, Regina

(The letter above was originally published in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.)

SaskPower collecting carbon tax on electricity

Your recent article regarding SaskPower’s announcement to increase carbon charges beginning in 2025 does not tell the whole story and is misleading to readers. The national pollution pricing benchmark is increasing from $80 to $95 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions. 

However, this federally mandated increase is much more than the average 2.9 per cent increase for carbon charges on customer bills announced by SaskPower. Has SaskPower previously been overcharging customers with respect to pollution pricing? 

As SaskPower modernizes the power grid with $256.7 million of federal funding to support clean power generation, customers can expect to pay much less in carbon charges. SaskPower recently removed important information from their webpage explaining where all this money goes. 

The blurb that was removed clearly states that Saskatchewan’s output-based performance standards program includes electricity generation: “As a result, the 2023-2030 carbon tax revenue SaskPower collects is paid to the provincial government, effective January 1, 2023.”  

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For the past two years, the Saskatchewan government has been collecting its own carbon tax on SaskPower bills. 

The provincial government should be held accountable for reinvesting these carbon funds back into Saskatchewan; however reports indicate that 11 of the 13 recipients of the $25 million funding from the Saskatchewan Technology Fund are oil and gas companies based in Calgary. 

SaskPower and our Saskatchewan government continue to blame the federal government for pollution pricing and clean energy regulations rather than being honest and transparent with residents about the Saskatchewan carbon tax. All of us together will benefit from a clean power grid. 

Shannon Wright, Vanscoy

(The letter above was originally published in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.)

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