Jennifer O’Brien
London Free Press
September 30, 2003

Ontario is on the verge of a provincewide power blackout daily, an energy expert says. With Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals vowing to maintain a Conservative freeze on power rates, that situation doesn’t look any brighter, said Tom Adams of Energy Probe.

"It’s very gloomy," said Adams. "None of the parties offers a viable program to stabilize Ontario’s hydro.

"And we can barely keep the lights on now."

Adams, like other critics, believes the artificially low government-imposed cap on power rates does nothing to encourage new energy alternatives.

"Neither the Tories nor the Liberals are prepared to admit the problems we’ve got in the electricity system," said Adams.

"Only the NDP has raised some important questions, particularly with how we get out of the rate freeze," he said.

Ontario Hydro, a government-owned monopoly power producer for more than 100 years, was broken up by the Tories in the mid-1990s and the energy market deregulated to encourage private interests to both build new power plants needed to supply the juice Ontario needs and to sell it.

But when power prices began to soar in 2002, Premier Ernie Eves froze the price of power – giving consumers a break but adding hundreds of millions of dollars a year in extra costs for the province.

And with many private interests saying there’s now no incentive to build costly new plants in Ontario, the government’s strategy has come under harsh criticism – especially in the aftermath of the massive power blackout in August that hit Ontario and large portions of the U.S.

All three main parties say they would reduce reliance on traditional sources of power by encouraging development of green energy sources, such as solar and wind power, and use of energy-conserving consumer appliances and bulbs.

All three also vow to shut Ontario’s coal-fired power generating stations, a move driven by demand for cleaner air, especially during the smoggy summer months.

But a key issue has become who owns – and will own – the province’s power system.

Ontario taxpayers own the vast majority of the province’s generating capacity, now operated by a Hydro spinoff company called Ontario Power Generation. And the power grid, or transmission lines that move electricity around, are publicly owned by another Hydro spinoff, Hydro One.

But with taxpayers saddled by a huge debt from Hydro of nearly $40 billion, and with chronic problems getting Ontario’s nuclear plants generating all the power needed, the province faces a costly and vulnerable energy future.

Critics grew even more alarmed last year when the Tories planned to sell Hydro One for an estimated $2 billion. That forced a last-minute change of government plans.

The New Democrats have made the most of the power issue, promising an NDP government would keep the system in public hands but remove the freeze on rates.

"The cap was foolish. I wish someone had the guts to remove it," said Tom Wonnacott, a UWO professor with an interests in environmental problems and solutions.

But to rely only on a public system is just as dangerous, he said.

"We have to pay honest prices. Public power is not cheaper, it just conceals the cost, like the old Ontario Hydro," said Wonnacott.

"The obvious solution is to increase price at peak times," he said, approving of the Liberal plan. "It is independent of the public-private issue."

But with the NDP running far behind in the polls, Adams isn’t waiting for an NDP solution to the power problems.

The Liberals, meanwhile, frontrunners in the polls, vow to maintain the rate cap at 4.3 cents per kilowatt-hour until 2006 – the same time line the Tories have promised.

After that, McGuinty says a Liberal government would charge a basic monthly rate for power, based on what an average family uses, and more for those who consume more.

Doing away with coal-fired generating plants – another part of the power problem – also raises the spectre of job losses, including at the Lambton Generating Station near Sarnia, which employs about 400 people in the area.

"I don’t want to see the job loss. We need to look at our need for power," said Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley. "Are there other things that would keep the plant operating?

"The Liberals need to look at natural gas" as a fuel to run generating stations, he said.

The Ontario Clean Air Alliance (OCAA) supports such a move as well, saying it would only take two or three years, which would fit in the Liberal and NDP plan to have the plants converted by 2007.

The Tories say doing so will take until 2015.