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The Saskatchewan NDP is proposing an alternative to the current net-metering program for the province in the form of a community power program.
Jared Clark, environment and rural and remote health critic for the Saskatchewan NDP, shared the plan with media at the official opposition’s Riversdale office on April 7.
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Clark said the proposed program would help “modernize Saskatchewan’s stalled net-metering system and give families, farms, businesses and communities the power to lower their bills and generate their own capacity” in the form of energy.
“Saskatchewan has the greatest solar generation capacity in Canada,” Clark claimed. “It is time we harnessed it.”
The proposed plan included modernizing net-metering to support self-generation for households, farms, businesses, municipalities and First Nations; allowing renters, low income residents and those without suitable rooftops to buy into shared projects and receive bill credits through a virtual co-op model; and increasing the credit rate to 11.6 cents per kilowatt hour – which Clark said would “restore meaningful value for excess energy” and mark a 50 per cent increase.
Clark also said the plan proposes assurance that net-metering credits rise alongside retail power rates, “protecting long-term value for participants,” and begin credit pooling “across facilities through consultation with rural municipalities and First Nations, allowing communities to share benefits where they’re needed.”
He said a restoration and modernization of the net-metering program is needed and crucial for Saskatchewan’s energy future. Through supporting users who are residential, agricultural producers, rural municipalities and First Nations, Clark said costs and emissions will be reduced while the energy grid and the province’s competitiveness is strengthened.
“Most people in Saskatchewan should be able to generate their own power, lower their bills and build stronger, more self reliant communities,” Clark said. “Instead, the (Saskatchewan) Party weakened net-metering, stalling out an entire industry.
“We’re bringing it back stronger and smarter.”
Clark said this new program is meant to show Saskatchewan people that there are other options for power and the future of electricity, specifically, in the province.
“We’re offering a practical path forward, one that puts control back in the hands of Saskatchewan,” Clark said.
In early 2026, SaskPower announced it was seeking a 3.9 per cent rate increase, with a second 3.9 per cent increase planned and approved for next year. Saskatoon Light and Power had the same two increases approved.
Clark asserted that with families facing these rising costs, the proposed plan would put more money back into the pockets of people in the province who wish to pursue a self-generating power option.
“We want to put the opportunity into people’s hands to be able to lower their electricity bill,” Clark explained.
“We hear from many people across the province that they want more affordable power. They want to do their part when we’re talking about reducing emissions and they want to be part of a future that is greener.”
Currently, SaskPower offers net-metering across the province. Residents can sign up to install solar panels to generate power on their own property for their use. Excess power is redirected back to the general power grid and residents are paid 7.5 cents by SaskPower per kilowatt-hour.
Previously, a one-to-one payment was available to residents, but demand rapidly rose in the province and in 2019, the Crown corporation announced it was suspending its net-metering program, citing that the program had “hit its cap ahead of schedule.”
The current SaskPower net-metering program was launched later in 2019 at the lower $0.075 rate per kW h. SaskPower just recently extended that rate for another three years.
Clark claimed that move to change the net-metering program “decimated the solar industry by about 90 to 95 per cent.”
Previously, he said the project was very popular and the decreased rate extends the period of time it will take for participants in the program to pay back the installation fee.
Clark said the official Opposition is also considering reintroducing a grant or rebate program that would help residents with offsetting those installation costs, similar to what was previously offered when the program was introduced.
In Saskatoon, net-metering is available for city residents, provided through Saskatoon Light & Power for those living within Circle Drive and by SaskPower to residents living in the suburbs.
During budget discussions in December 2025, Saskatoon’s city council voted unanimously to reduce the compensation rates for Saskatoon Light and Power customers who participate in the program.
City council also endorsed a grandfather clause at that time for the hundreds of people participating in the program, keeping them at the higher rate they were being compensated for the next decade.
‘Unsustainable and ideologically-driven plan’
A statement from the province doesn’t mince words in its response to the proposed plan.
“The NDP have chosen to recycle the same unsustainable and ideologically driven plan first pushed by Ryan Meili when he was NDP leader and which was roundly rejected by the Saskatchewan public,” read the statement attributed to Minister of Crown Investments Corporation, Jeremy Harrison.
The statement goes on to call the proposed program “unsustainable,” stating it “would do nothing but drive-up costs for other ratepayers.
“Paying inflated credits for excess power creates a system where families, seniors and small businesses who can’t participate would be subsidizing those who can. That’s not fair, and it’s not responsible,” Harrison’s statement continued.
The minister said that other jurisdictions have demonstrated higher costs and added pressure on the power grid when energy policy is “driven by ideology instead of practicality.”
“Saskatchewan won’t go down that path,” Harrison’s statement asserted.
He said SaskPower will continue to support self-generated power by customers, in such a way that power remains reliable, rates are affordable and the system remains “fair for everyone.”
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