The latest furor over the awarding of more wind farm contracts for Chatham-Kent illustrates just how poorly managed Ontario’s energy sector is, and has been, for decades.
Despite a surplus of electricity, (thanks mostly to some of the highest rates in North America) the province continues to approve the construction of wind turbines in what seems to be a race to pile debt upon debt.
Although government officials deny it, opponents say Ontarians have paid to produce more than $1 billion in electricity that has been sold off to various American states at huge discounts.
There is no doubt the province (and planet for that matter) must move to the cleanest, most renewable energy sources available, however, the massive subsidization of “green” technology is costing manufacturing jobs and is eroding Ontario’s ability to find its way out of the energy mess.
The province is in a death spiral in that the higher it raises rates to cover subsidization (and to a greater degree mismanagement of the sector), the fewer customers are available to pay for it.
The massive downsizing of manufacturing leaves more of the burden on residential usage, and average Ontarians continue to see double digit increases that they can’t afford.
Throw in the billion or more wasted on the gas plant cancellation (now under criminal investigation), the out-of-touch mothballing of Ontario’s clean coal burning plants and the incompetence of the officials involved in the smart meter scandal and there is plenty of blame to go around.
Premier Kathleen Wynne’s sell-off of Hydro One has, to date, been a flop, with 15 per cent of the utility having been purchased.
There is some hope in that prices paid for wind-generated electricity are dropping. Competition for the lucrative contracts has seen to that.
Monday’s appointment of Fiona Crean as Hydro One’s Ombudsman could help as well but she’ll have to prove herself as more than just a political hack in a government that reeks of incompetence.
The entire utility smells like a freezer full of meat left unplugged in mid-summer.
