The provincial NDP wants an emergency audit of SaskPower following a request by the government to provide the crown corporation with an additional $1 billion in the current fiscal year.

SaskPower critic Aleana Young intends to bring the motion forward at the Public Accounts Committee Meeting.  She says, “Saskatchewan people are already facing financial stress unlike any seen in a generation and the inevitable power rate hike of 10 per cent at the least thanks to the Sask. Party is going to make things that much harder.”

The provincial government says there are three reasons that SaskPower needs the extra cash—transmission system expansion to connect northern and southern grids, refurbishing coal-fire power plants, as well as covering the cost of not collecting the federal carbon tax.