During Question Period on Tuesday, the Minister responsible for SaskPower was asked why he was at the tourist sites of Arc de Triomphe and Napoleon’s tomb in Paris, when he was supposed to be touring pavilions at the World Nuclear Expo which would have been about an hour’s drive away. SaskPower Critic, Aleana Young, explained that through a Freedom of Information request, they received documents which show that Minister Dustin Duncan used a private Mercedes chauffeur service the week he was there, to the tune of $3,500, and his agenda shows he was supposed to be at the Expo when he was getting rides from these locations. She questioned why the government says no to provincial gas tax relief at the pumps and then bills the taxpayer for a private tour through Paris.
Duncan says the private chauffeur service was for the entire delegation at the conference. He stresses that he had a very full agenda, including a meeting with Canada’s ambassador to France and speaking at the embassy, along with meeting representative from France, Poland Czechia, and the Netherlands who are very interested in nuclear power, which this province has to offer, and the same nuclear technology that Saskatchewan will likely be the second in the world to deploy – Small Modular Reactors. SMRs are being studied by SaskPower as a possible option for sustainable green energy.