A formerly secret Bitcoin-mining operation near Edmonton run by a Vancouver company had to shut down as they had set up an operation using four shipping containers full of servers without receiving permission from the province's power Crown corporation or consulting nearby residents.

Alberta has also been in the news recently with a company - Black Rock Petroleum - announcing they'd entered a "binding" agreement with Optimum Mining Host Limited Liability Co to "host and operate up to one million Bit miners to be relocated from locations in China and exported to Canada." They said the miners would be deployed across three natural gas-producing sites in Alberta.

Things have been quieter in Saskatchewan - at least as far as any major, legal operations go - according to SaskPower Spokesperson Scott McGregor.

"We haven't seen any requests for a large-scale cryptocurrency mining operation like they did in Alberta there in the past number of years," he said. "It's nothing that is currently being asked of us."

A potential large-scale cryptocurrency miner would legally be required to go through SaskPower for permission before setting up shop.

"If a company did want to come into Saskatchewan with a large-scale cryptocurrency-mining operation, they would apply for service the same as any large-usage customer would - the same as a steel mill or the same as any large industrial customer would - and go through that regular process," McGregor said.

This doesn't mean cryptocurrency mining isn't growing on a smaller scale.

"In terms of a smaller operation, if someone just had a couple mining computers in their garage, it's something that we probably wouldn't even notice," McGregor said. "It's just like running a couple extra computers out of your house, and your power bill will go up, and that will be the end of it."

McGregor said he's not sure whether companies are going to start to want to mine cryptocurrency in Saskatchewan.