The funding for Western Economic Diversification remains the same even though British Columbia is no longer in the same group with Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

That was the message from the federal government’s Special Representative for the Prairies, Minister Jim Carr to members of the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce. He says it will be a federal agency devoted to diversification of the Prairie economy. Carr believes the impact will be significant because there will be considerably more investment for the Prairies.

Its mission and mandate is being discussed now through focus groups to hone in on what the priorities of the new agency should be.

Although the new tax incentive for zero emission technology doesn’t include nuclear technologies, Carr says nuclear will be an important part of the clean energy mix. He talked about the federal government making major investments in small nuclear reactors, which is something the province has been looking into, and he suggests we have to open our minds to all sources of non-emitting power and that includes SMRs. Carr lists other technologies like carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, thermal and hydro-electric as other sources of power.

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