Tom Adams
Energy Probe
March 16, 2000

Mike Harris’s electricity restructuring is degenerating into a nightmare attack on consumers, taxpayers, and the environment.

Your power rates are about to go up. Air pollution is about to get worse. Nuclear plants that are shut down and should stay mothballed forever may be brought back into production. The Ontario Hydro generating monopoly is virtually intact. And our independent regulator — the Ontario Energy Board — has been stripped of its independence and now takes orders from Mike Harris and his government.

After seven years of turmoil, during which the government was supposed to be deregulating the power system, privatizing it to take it out of the hands of politicians, and giving more power to the consumer, what has the government delivered? Not privatization — nothing has been sold. Not deregulation — if anything, the government’s grip on the power system is tighter than ever before. Not honest regulation — the regulator is now a toothless paper pusher in Mike Harris’s direct employ. Not lower rates — instead, tax upon tax is secretly being added to every aspect of the new power system. Not tougher air pollution controls — loopholes will let coal plant operators increase their emissions.

The electricity restructuring has centralized power with Mike Harris. As a result, the backbone of the old Hydro system — its highly polluting coal and nuclear plants — are protected from competition by cleaner and cheaper power sources, mostly cogeneration and high-efficiency natural gas plants, but also some renewable technology.

We must bring the Mike Harris government to its senses. Ontario doesn’t need to be under the grip of a new Hydro monopoly. We need true competition and strong independent regulation to lower our rates and clean up pollution. In the United Kingdom, which broke up its power monopoly in 1989, rates plummeted immediately and old polluting plants were soon replaced by clean modern ones.

If you agree, please send us a generous donation, to let us spread the word — through more letters and more articles like the one enclosed, through more speeches, more press interviews, and more presentations to government bodies. This government’s Hydro reforms are running off the rails. With your help, we can convince the government to get back on track.

Sincerely,

Thomas Adams
Executive Director

P.S. Please respond quickly with a tax-creditable donation. Time is of the essence. The longer it takes for the government to wake up, the higher our Hydro rates will go and the worse our environment will be polluted.