Estevan enjoyed a rare visit from the leader of a federal political party on Tuesday, as Maxime Bernier, the leader of the People’s Party of Canada, was in the Energy City.
Bernier visited the carbon capture and storage facility at SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Power Station, and came away impressed with the technology at Boundary Dam and the people working there.
“It’s a new way to have coal facilities. You cannot build a coal facility without having the carbon capture like that, but in the end, it’s also a huge cost.”
He was supposed to tour Westmoreland Mining LLC’s site in Estevan, but time didn’t permit. Bernier hopes to visit the facility at another time.
Then he spoke to a crowd of party supporters at the Beefeater Plaza. He outlined the party’s platform on a number of issues, including immigration numbers, equalization payments, balanced budgets, environmental policy, corporate bailouts and supply management.
He frequently criticized the federal Liberal government of Justin Trudeau and also took aim at the Conservative Party, led by Andrew Scheer. He compared the two parties on a number of different fronts, and explained how the People’s Party of Canada would be different.
At one point, he said he would never merge the PPC with the Tories. Bernier said he would never back a merger with the two parties.
And he voiced his support for Phil Zajac, who will be the party’s candidate in Souris-Moose Mountain in the next federal election. He said the PPC will have a candidate in every electoral district in the next election.
Bernier wrapped up the night by spending about 25 minutes answering questions from the audience.
Next week’s edition of the Mercury will have more on this story.
