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Ontario ponders another costly, McGuinty-esque electricity spending spree
Ontario’s big power expansion is portrayed by the Ford government as a good news story with little context on costs
Ontario is “investing” billions of dollars in the idea of an all-electric future, one that features electric home heating and electric cars. The government’s approach involves both a massive expansion of the province’s electrical generating capacity and heavy subsidies for makers of electric vehicle batteries.
The Doug Ford government is approaching the electric future with gung-ho enthusiasm. When it comes to electricity, cost seems to be no object for this government, but who will pay for all the spending?
Last week, Minister of Energy and Electrification Stephen Lecce was in Ottawa to announce that government owned Ontario Power Generation (OPG) would spend $1 billion to refurbish eight hydroelectric generating stations in Eastern Ontario. The aging generating stations can produce enough power for 1.6-million homes. The modernization, while necessary, adds only enough additional power to supply another 11,000 homes.
The announcement follows similar ones to spend $600 million on fixing up a hydro station in Cornwall and $1 billion to modernize the Niagara Falls power plant. Neither of those projects claim additional capacity. That’s $2.6 billion just to fix up aging infrastructure, not add meaningful capacity.
Jack’s Note: Incompetent leadership begets very stupid ideas. If you think Justin Trudeau is in trouble you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
