Liberals and hydro in Ontario.

[ZR]

If Ontario’s power system under Premier Kathleen Wynne and her predecessor, Dalton McGuinty, has a theme song, it would be the 1985 Dire Straits hit Money for Nothing.
Through poor planning and political interference with their own experts, the Liberals have created a perfect storm, generating a chronic surplus of expensive, unneeded electricity they have to sell at a loss to the U.S. and Quebec.
Paying for those losses helps drive up electricity rates, the opposite of a normal market in which prices drop if supply exceeds demand.
Given this, the Liberals routinely pay power generators not to produce electricity.
Hence, money for nothing, paid by taxpayers and hydro ratepayers.
The latest wrinkle, revealed by my Toronto Sun colleague Antonella Artuso, applies to small, mainly natural gas plants, known as non-utility generators (NUGs).
The province’s Independent Electricity System Operator won’t say how much money for nothing the NUGs will be getting.
But former Ontario auditor general Jim McCarter identified the roots of this problem in 2011, when he warned the Liberals about creating a surplus of green energy, mainly wind power, at a time when energy demand was dropping.
He specifically cited their “Feed-in Tariff” program, offering renewable energy producers huge public subsidies for 20 years for unneeded and unreliable wind and solar power, that had to be purchased before other forms of energy.
That would add billions of dollars to electricity rates, he said, including, at that time, payments of up to $225 million annually to green energy developers not to produce electricity.
In 2015, current Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk, completing McCarter’s 2011 assessment, said the Liberals had overpaid $9.2 billion for wind and solar power and Ontarians were paying twice the U.S. average for wind power, 3.5 times for solar.
To be fair, the electricity system has to have reserve power generation capacity to handle peak periods of demand, so there’s always a need to pay some generators not to produce electricity.
But the Liberals created a vicious circle in which their massive payments for unneeded electricity helped drive up rates, not only for residential customers, but for businesses, many of which closed shop in part because of these high rates.
That caused demand for electricity to drop more, creating a bigger energy surplus.
That’s why the Liberals, belatedly, reduced their multi-billion-dollar green energy deal with Samsung in 2013 and in 2016 cancelled future large-scale wind, solar, biomass (and, irrelevantly, hydro) projects. But it’s too little too late.
The Liberals’ latest spin is that by increasing electricity rates, they have done the “heavy lifting” of improving the electricity grid they inherited from the previous Progressive Conservative government.
While the grid needed improvements, Lysyk was, in fact, sharply critical in her 2015 report about the performance and reliability of Hydro One under the Liberals, the province’s electricity distributor.
She also said political interference with the electricity system and poor planning by the Liberals led to consumers paying $37 billion more than the market price for electricity between 2006 and 2014, and would mean future payments of $133 billion above the market price between 2015 and 2032.

[ZR]

You look at the numbers and can't help but feel sick about just how badly they've screwed this whole thing up. Yup, years n years of them preaching "cut back and conserve" only to find out, better managing power in our homes resulted in being hoop'd even harder.
Only the Ontario Liberals you say. :facepalm:

[ZR]

In case you missed a similar article a week or two ago, some plants are being paid to sit idle. Of course the Liberals are telling us not to worry, plants paid to sit idle today will save us money down the line.


Several generating plants will be paid as they sit idle for up to a year or more because that’s a money-saving move in the province’s screwy electricity system.
PC MPP Vic Fedeli, who represents the North Bay area where one plant is located, said as many as 100 jobs could be lost in the province, while the Ontario government announces it’s buying more Quebec hydro power.
“I stated that very day that this will cost Ontario jobs in the non-utility generators (NUGs)... and that’s precisely what’s happened,” Fedeli said Wednesday.
Energy advisor Tom Adams calls this “long-term paid holiday” courtesy of Ontario hydro customers a symptom of a diseased system that’s bringing on new power generation while struggling with an excess of electricity supply.
“They’re still approving the construction of mostly wind and solar,” Adams said. “A lot of these wind turbines were getting installed in the north right beside paper mills that were shutting down.
“Screwed up? Let me count the ways. This just goes on and on and on,” he said.
Atlantic Power Corp. has announced it is idling plants in North Bay, Kapuskasing and Nipigon but will be paid until the end of its contract on Dec. 31, 2017, while Northland Power’s Iroquois Falls facility says it will produce less power until April.
TransAlta Corp. has stated that its new contract provides a fixed monthly payment until Dec. 31, 2018, with “no delivery obligations.”
Under the terms of renegotiated contracts, the companies can opt to produce power or not.

[Stephen06GT]

The people of Ontario that voted for these morons should be ashamed of themselves. Unfortunately those same people will probably vote for the Liberals in the next election.

[ZR]

Yes Sir they will.

[RedSN]

Really makes me want to go off the grid and generate my own solar, wind, or natural gas plant power.
It might be expensive, but the call to Ontario Hydro to cut the power and fuck off would be just as satisfying as it was telling Rogers to do the same.

[ZR]

Key numbers behind Ontario’s electricity crisis won’t be public any time soon.
The Liberal government on Monday rejected Tory MPP Todd Smith’s demand for a full accounting of when power is restored to hydro customers who have been cut off from the electricity grid.
“It’s another indication the government isn’t serious about opening up transparency in the electricity sector,” Smith said. “We believe it’s an easy thing for the government to do — just to provide the numbers that we were looking for when it comes to disconnects.”
Under increasing pressure from opposition parties, the Liberals moved last week to stop winter hydro cut offs.
A government order to hydro companies also required utilities to provide power to people who had already been cut off. Energy Minister Glen Thibeault said he’d like to see power restored to those customers by Friday.
“I’m expecting that the (Ontario Energy Board) will ensure that all utilities have everyone reconnected as soon as possible,” he said Monday.

[ZR]

At least one of the party's is talking about a plan.

While it’s a close race to the bottom, we can all agree there is no file that our leftist premier has bungled more than energy.
In the past year, Kathleen Wynne has sold off 30% of Hydro One to scrape up money for transit and to pay down the Ontario debt — before she has to face the electorate in little more than a year’s time.
Her plan, at least so far, is to sell off another 30% of the energy monopoly.
(Need I remind everyone that had $2 billion not been wasted on spiking two gas plants and on e-Health — not to mention those lavish contracts to buy labour peace with teachers and other Ontario unions and the tremendous amount needed to service Ontario’s debt — there might be money for transit. Details, details!)
For one thing, the sell-off has done nothing to lessen Ontario’s Hydro hell — that is the crushing electricity bills experienced by residents and businesses alike.
But to add insult to injury, once Wynne started privatizing Hydro, the door shut on transparency. There’s no imperative to reveal the outrageous salaries of the top brass or to be accountable to customers.
Sure there is a new ombudsman, Fiona Crean. Yet the highly-political public servant appears to be nothing more than window dressing. She spent her first year on the job travelling around the province listening to public concerns but a review of her website shows no investigations to date.
Is there any better reason why Wynne and her tired Liberals have sunk to a new low with 24% in a recently released Forum poll?
I’m not the least bit shocked, although it’s a long way to election day.
This is precisely why I feel somewhat energized by NDP leader Andrea Horwath’s 14-page plan — unveiled Monday — to tackle Wynne’s hydro mess.
Entitled “Pay less, own more” the cornerstone of the NDP platform is to buy back the 30% of Hydro shares now owned privately — the up to $4 billion cost to be financed by the dividends the province gave up when the 30% portion was sold off.
Now I’m always suspect of leftist math, but at least Horwath is talking about the single biggest issue currently facing hard working Ontario residents and one which will continue to spark anger heading into next year’s election.
I especially applaud the proposal to cut mandatory-time-of-use electricity pricing — which has seen rates virtually double during what are considered peak times of the day. According to the well-researched NDP report (the Dippers certainly do their homework), it’s not working, has not resulted in lower hydro bills and has simply made it more stressful for those Ontario residents who have no choice but to do their laundry, etc. during peak hours.
In recent months I’ve given up doing my laundry at 11 p.m. when I saw that our hydro bills weren’t impacted one bit.
Keeping the 8% HST off hydro bills — as Horwath also suggests — was part of my own platform when I ran against Liberal Eric Hoskins in St. Paul’s in 2009. We should not credit Wynne’s move to rebate the 8% HST as anything more than a cheap pre-election ploy.
Kudos to Horwath for at least trying to put some solutions on the radar. The PCs certainly haven’t come up with any sort of a plan but one can always hope this will turn on a few lightbulbs within the Tory caucus.

[5.4MarkVIII]

At least one of the party's is talking about a plan.

While it’s a close race to the bottom, we can all agree there is no file that our leftist premier has bungled more than energy.
In the past year, Kathleen Wynne has sold off 30% of Hydro One to scrape up money for transit and to pay down the Ontario debt — before she has to face the electorate in little more than a year’s time.
Her plan, at least so far, is to sell off another 30% of the energy monopoly.
(Need I remind everyone that had $2 billion not been wasted on spiking two gas plants and on e-Health — not to mention those lavish contracts to buy labour peace with teachers and other Ontario unions and the tremendous amount needed to service Ontario’s debt — there might be money for transit. Details, details!)
For one thing, the sell-off has done nothing to lessen Ontario’s Hydro hell — that is the crushing electricity bills experienced by residents and businesses alike.
But to add insult to injury, once Wynne started privatizing Hydro, the door shut on transparency. There’s no imperative to reveal the outrageous salaries of the top brass or to be accountable to customers.
Sure there is a new ombudsman, Fiona Crean. Yet the highly-political public servant appears to be nothing more than window dressing. She spent her first year on the job travelling around the province listening to public concerns but a review of her website shows no investigations to date.
Is there any better reason why Wynne and her tired Liberals have sunk to a new low with 24% in a recently released Forum poll?
I’m not the least bit shocked, although it’s a long way to election day.
This is precisely why I feel somewhat energized by NDP leader Andrea Horwath’s 14-page plan — unveiled Monday — to tackle Wynne’s hydro mess.
Entitled “Pay less, own more” the cornerstone of the NDP platform is to buy back the 30% of Hydro shares now owned privately — the up to $4 billion cost to be financed by the dividends the province gave up when the 30% portion was sold off.
Now I’m always suspect of leftist math, but at least Horwath is talking about the single biggest issue currently facing hard working Ontario residents and one which will continue to spark anger heading into next year’s election.
I especially applaud the proposal to cut mandatory-time-of-use electricity pricing — which has seen rates virtually double during what are considered peak times of the day. According to the well-researched NDP report (the Dippers certainly do their homework), it’s not working, has not resulted in lower hydro bills and has simply made it more stressful for those Ontario residents who have no choice but to do their laundry, etc. during peak hours.
In recent months I’ve given up doing my laundry at 11 p.m. when I saw that our hydro bills weren’t impacted one bit.
Keeping the 8% HST off hydro bills — as Horwath also suggests — was part of my own platform when I ran against Liberal Eric Hoskins in St. Paul’s in 2009. We should not credit Wynne’s move to rebate the 8% HST as anything more than a cheap pre-election ploy.
Kudos to Horwath for at least trying to put some solutions on the radar. The PCs certainly haven’t come up with any sort of a plan but one can always hope this will turn on a few lightbulbs within the Tory caucus.


This bugs me just as much as the liberals. Back when this hydro shit show was still in the beginning and production stages the liberals did not have a majority government. The only reason that they could go threw with their plans was because the NDP followed their every whim like a bunch of lost puppy's.

Now they are against it. It's just pandering for votes and unfortunately so many people are clueless as to what's gone on they will continue to vote in piss poor governments.

[92redragtop]

Yup, Horwath is just as guilty for what the Liberals have screwed up in the past couple years but she was fooled by them and voted on their side in exchange for the auto insurance discount fiasco.

[TheMustangShow]

Liberals love their Hydro Bills, Grade 3 Sex Ed, 6 place Ribbons and 3rd Bathrooms.

They have an affinity for strange things.

[Scrape]

You sir nailed it right there.
Liberals love their Hydro Bills, Grade 3 Sex Ed, 6 place Ribbons and 3rd Bathrooms.

They have an affinity for strange things.

[ZR]

Interesting take on what the Liberals may try to pull off.


What are the Liberals thinking?
Ontarians are now paying the highest electricity rates in our province’s history. Since the Liberals took office, we now pay about $1,000 more on our electricity bills every year. This means that the cost of running your fridge, doing the laundry, or washing dishes has gone up more than 400% in 14 years.
According to the Ontario Energy Board (OEB), more than 500,000 families were behind in their hydro bill payments at the end of 2015. The total owed was $172.5 million. The OEB also revealed that 60,000 residential customers were disconnected from their hydro services in the past year because they were unable to pay their bills.
But in the Liberals’ strange world of denial and alternative facts, there was no problem until they saw their approval ratings.
Polls are looking grim, and public confidence in this government has never been lower. Premier Kathleen Wynne’s own approval rating is so low, she’s basically a squatter in her own office.
But believe it or not, Wynne is finally thinking of “doing something” about hydro rates.
She’s considering paying for delivery charges out of “general revenue.” This would mean that government money collected from your taxes will be used to pay for part of your hydro bill. This would mean that companies like Hydro One will no longer have to include the delivery charge on your bill.
This might sound good, but don’t be fooled.
If so many people are in arrears on their hydro bills, and so many households are being disconnected, it means that Hydro One’s revenue stream is not very dependable.
If Hydro One starts collecting payment from your tax dollars, it will have a much larger, and more reliable, source of money. Hydro One’s revenue will go up, its balance sheet will look much better, and it will become a much more valuable company.
Could there be a better way of increasing Hydro One’s value before the Liberals sell it off completely?
This would be a sneaky way of getting a little bit of extra cash, so that the Liberals can claim to have balanced the budget.
I’m just speculating, of course. But if there’s one thing I know about the Wynne government, it’s that it cannot be trusted or predicted.
Families and business have been struggling with exorbitant hydro costs for more than a decade, but the government has done nothing. The problem is not some sort of accounting error, or uncontrollable rise in the price of electricity.
The Green Energy Act is the problem. Until this is abolished and replaced, the cost of hydro is going to get worse.
Ontarians need a solution to the problem: not a bizarre shell game designed to fool us into thinking that we’re paying less for hydro.
And we want no part of a cynical Liberal scheme to fatten up a public utility before selling it off.
— MacLaren is the Progressive Conservative MPP for Carleton—Mississippi Mills

[83 5.0]

She is a smart politician, coming off the Mea Culpa tour.
We know we did wrong and we feel your pain so lets have a conversation to correct this, blah blah blah.
I almost forgot she wanted to leave a legacy that her grand children could be proud of.
Well they are getting somemore debt to remember Granma Kathleen with.

[ZR]

Let's see what shiat falls outta her mouth today.http://tu9srvbirvvtnirzdg9yywdllnrvcm9udg9zdw4uy29t.g00.t orontosun.com/g00/2_d3d3LnRvcm9udG9zdW4uY29t_/TU9SRVBIRVVTNiRodHRwOi8vc3RvcmFnZS50b3JvbnRvc3VuLm NvbS92MS9keW5hbWljX3Jlc2l6ZS9zd3NfcGF0aC9zdW5zLXBy b2QtaW1hZ2VzLzEyOTc5MzE1NjE5MjdfU01BTExfQk9YLmpwZz 9xdWFsaXR5PTgwJnN0bXA9MTQ4ODQ1OTM2OTE4NiZzaXplPTIx MHgmaTEwYy5tYXJrLmltYWdlLnR5cGU%3D_$/$/$/$/$/$


TORONTO -- Premier Kathleen Wynne and Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault are set to tell electricity ratepayers today how the Liberal government plans to reduce their bills.
The Toronto Star reported Wednesday that the plan is to slash soaring hydro bills by 17 per cent largely by paying the costs of electricity generation contracts over longer periods.
The move would be akin to refinancing a mortgage and is on top of an eight per cent rebate that took effect Jan. 1.
Thibeault wouldn't say Wednesday whether relief would come all at once or in phases.
Thibeault says it could take some time to take effect, if regulatory changes or legislation are needed, but adds it could perhaps be made retroactive.
Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown says the reported plan would just shift costs from people's hydro bills to tax bills.
NDP deputy leader Jagmeet Singh said the reported plan wouldn't address the root causes of problems within the electricity system, such as the high-paying, long-term contracts.
And Energy consultant Tom Adams said in a blog post that the plan would create a "big new electricity debt" in order to make rates "appear" to decrease.

[mavrrrick]

All that will fall out of her mouth is CRAP!!! No change expected.

Sent from my Moto G Play using Tapatalk

[Harbinger]

I thought it was going to be slashed by 25 percent ?

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

[5.4MarkVIII]

I thought it was going to be slashed by 25 percent ?

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

25% including the 8 hst. That they already removed.

Although I've talked to lots of people who's hydro went up after the hst was removed and a 25% reduction dosnt mean anything when reports are that average increases have been like 30% per year. For the last few years.

I have heard that the new drinking game is to take a drink every time a liberal says, green energy. Clean energy or coal reduction.

[OldSchool]

arent they the one's to blame for the increase in the first place? they are just setting us up IMHO with the heavy incentives they are giving on Plug in cars. the writing is on the wall for " too much demand, evening usage has increased, price increase across the board" I can feel this one in my bones 14K on a 35 K car. Heck I am thinking of one, cheaper then my site generator and just as strong LOL

[5.4MarkVIII]

So the liberals great plan to fix their hydro screw ups is to defer the cost and accumulate interest on it. Because they don't just want to screw you, they want to screw your children and grandchildren as well.

[RedSN]

When I hear of someone extending their amortization, or getting a second mortgage, or selling off jewelry.... i think: they ain't going to make it.

Well....that's Ontario

http://static.theglobeandmail.ca/43f/incoming/article893846.ece/ALTERNATES/w620/jewellery-buyers12nw1.jpg

[mavrrrick]

Taking from Peter to pay Paul...They have fucked us Soooooo hard!!!

Sent from my Moto G Play using Tapatalk

[ZR]

After reading bold section below one can safely conclude.....................The Ontario Liberal Party is out of it's fucking mind.

Soaring electricity bills in Ontario will see an average 17-per-cent cut this summer, a year before the provincial Liberals bid for re-election, but those savings will ultimately cost ratepayers billions in extra interest payments.
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne acknowledged Thursday that the bill for the across-the-board-relief will eventually come due for ratepayers.
"Over time it will cost a bit more. That's true," she said when detailing the plan. "And it will take longer to pay off. That's also true. But it is fairer because it doesn't ask this generation of hydro customers alone to pay the freight for everyone before and after."
PHOTOS
https://www.cp24.com/polopoly_fs/1.3119975.1479852082!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_225/image.jpg (https://www.cp24.com/polopoly_fs/1.3119975.1479852082!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_960/image.jpg)

Ontario Energy Minister, Glenn Thibeault spoke with the media in Toronto on Monday Sept. 12, 2016. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Peter Power)



Electricity bills have roughly doubled in the last decade, rising faster than inflation since 2010, and have sparked increasing anger among Ontarians, leading to plummeting approval ratings for Wynne.
She said the increasing costs were due to investments in the grid, nuclear refurbishments and getting rid of coal. She also acknowledged that long-term contracts for green energy producers at above-market rates were "too generous."
Ontario now has a clean and reliable system, Wynne said, but the entire burden of those investments was being shouldered by current ratepayers when the benefits will be seen over many years.
But Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown said the new plan just shifts the burden between the same group of people -- "robbing Peter to pay Paul, but in this case, both Peter and Paul are taxpayers."
Most of the electricity generation contracts in Ontario are for 20 years, so refinancing them is like re-amortizing a mortgage over 30 years instead. But that will come with up to $1.4 billion a year in extra interest payments over 10 years.
In the near term, rates will also be held to the rate of inflation, and the plan is for the 17-per-cent cut to be reflected in the Ontario Energy Board's May 1 rates so customers see it reflected on their June bills.
But those extra interest costs will be added back onto bills in the future.

[5.4MarkVIII]

I posted on Facebook about this and the liberals in general just your average liberals are ruining Ontario rant.
And my own brother asked be to site sources proving that the liberals has caused so much harm and sources to show how bad we off we are com paired to other countries and for proof how the conservatives would have done better.

I damn near fell off my chair. This is a perfect example as to why they keep getting voted back in.

[83 5.0]

Interest could be $1.4 billion a year at current rates.
Rates are going to rise in that 30 year period, but the Liberals calculator kind of missed this.

[Screw]

Sorry whose flipping debt we paying ...?
You guys mind helping me out with a high interest card lol

[True Blue]

I swear this Liberal party would even make David Copperfield fucking jealous of the trickeries they pull.

God damn you bastards!!!

[RedSN]

True the power grid needed upgrading, and that blame can be shared across the board.
But don't try and pin the Green Energy Act on the PC's or the NDP. And there is a direct correlation between the recent prices soaring and the GEA.

[True Blue]

The kicker Samsung gave the Ontario government a chance to terminate the GEA and they chose not too!

[Biz]

So with all the bullshit yesterday I found this article to be even more mind blowing.
I don't get it.
How can anyone who lives in the core of Toronto still support this nightmare?



TORONTO - Support for Ontario’s Liberals is crumbling in the former suburban areas of Toronto, according to a Mainstreet Research poll.

While the provincial Liberals command a 42% lead among decided and leaning voters in Toronto, support for them outside the downtown area is wavering.“Yes, the overall lead is still there in the 416, but really it’s only a lead in the downtown core” at 57%, said Quito Maggi, president and CEO of Mainstreet Research.

According to the poll, support for the Liberals in Etobicoke is 32%, compared to 45% for the Progressive Conservatives.

Wynne’s Liberals are also running in third place in Scarborough, where it is essentially a three-way split between the Tories, NDP and Grits (33%, 31% and 29%, respectively). And in North York, the Liberals only lead over the Tories by a few points.

All this “is pointing to major losses in the 416 for Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals,” Maggi said.

Recent polls show the Liberals’ popularity has plummeted in Ontario. A previous Mainstreet poll in February showed only 18% of Ontarians thought Wynne was doing a good job.

If an election were held today, strong support in downtown Toronto ridings is “just not enough,” Maggi said.

Rising support for the NDP will likely “deliver more seats to the Progressive Conservatives” in three-way races in Scarborough, North York, and Etobicoke, he added.

By contrast, the federal Liberals are enjoying strong support at 60% overall across the city. Among decided and leaning voters downtown, support for Justin Trudeau’s party is at 73%. The federal party commands the support of 53% of decided and leaning voters in Etobicoke and 56% in Scarborough at 56%.

The poll — conducted Feb. 21 — is based on a random sample of 2,103 Toronto residents and has a margin of error of 2.1%, 19 times out of 20.

[ZR]

Easy, it's where the bulk of those they've bought n paid for live....................again on our dime.

[RedSN]

Patrick Brown on Wynne's Hydro Plan
http://www.iheartradio.ca/newstalk-1010/shows/moore-in-the-morning-1.1813037

Brings up some good points and some good ideas, but he completely fumbles the last question about what to do about the current hydro debt. It's like he's been under a rock for the last week and didn't understand the question. :facepalm:

[5.4MarkVIII]

The problem is there is nothing that can be done about the current hydro crisis. Pay billions in cancelation fees or laws suits to cancel contracts. The government and its taxpayers are on the hook for alot of money we don't have.
We need to save money and that means cuts. We all know how well talking about cutbacks went for the pc party last election.

[WTF]

True the power grid needed upgrading, and that blame can be shared across the board.
But don't try and pin the Green Energy Act on the PC's or the NDP. And there is a direct correlation between the recent prices soaring and the GEA.

nail on head

the GEA needs to be torn up and burned.....and it can be done

http://www.torontosun.com/2017/03/03/its-time-to-tear-up-ontarios-green-scheme-contracts

We can save Ontario ratepayers billions of dollars by tearing up the green energy contracts that are playing a part in harming our economy, costing us manufacturing jobs and pushing people into poverty.

The political establishment and energy industry will say it can’t be done. Don’t listen to them. None of them have even tried and they don’t have your best interests in mind. Here’s how to get it done though:

Call up the companies the Liberals signed sweetheart deals with and tell them it’s not working anymore. Ontario has many contracts with companies large and small to pay them more than the going market rate for the renewable energy they produce. In some cases, we pay a staggering 40 times the rate.

They won’t be surprised to get our call. They’re probably expecting it and think we’re suckers for not trying to renegotiate sooner. Some will go along with it right away.

The deals many companies have with us right now are so generous that we can cut their rates by a lot and they’ll still walk away happy. The Liberals actually did just this back in 2012, cutting some contracts in half.

Others will say no though. And this is where the hardball begins: We tell them we’re tearing the contracts up.

If this brings them on board, then great. For the rest that call our bluff, turn the tables on them.

Hold a press conference to name and shame them. Physically tear up their contracts on television. Explain to the public that we gave these companies an out, that the ball was in their court, but instead they made the choice to become an enemy of the people.

After they see we aren’t joking, more will slink back and hammer out a deal. Others will posture that they want to go to court.

Good luck with that. While some of these companies have deep pockets — like Samsung, which has a multibillion-dollar deal with the province — and are up for a lengthy legal battle, many aren’t. They’ll settle. And maybe the big ones will too, as it’s the path of least resistance.

But it doesn’t even have to get to that point. This is because we can actually pass bills voiding contracts. Provinces have the power to do this, as Bruce Pardy, law professor at Queen’s University, wrote in 2014.

“If the Ontario Power Authority simply declared contracts under its Feed-In-Tariff to be terminated, the robust compensation clauses contained in those contracts would apply,” writes Pardy. “However, if instead the Ontario legislature passed a statue that explicitly denied the right to compensation, then no compensation would be payable.”

Now the biggest argument against going down this route is that it undermines the trust companies have in us as a contract partner. But this perspective will be isolated to the renewable energy sector, as our decision to tear up the deals will be based on factors specific to that industry.

So let me get this straight: If we tear up green energy contracts, the fallout will be that green energy companies will never want to enter into those sorts of contracts with us again? I fail to see the downside. Where’s the shredder? Let’s get started.

The opposition has been sheepish about playing hardball because they haven’t seen what’s in the contracts. But what they’ll likely find is there are indeed outs for us, they’re just ones the Liberals aren’t using.

It wouldn’t be the first time this has happened. This was the case with the billion-dollar gas plants scandal, as the 2013 auditor general’s report explains: “The premier’s office committed to compensating (TransCanada Energy) for the financial value of its contract for the Oakville plant, even though events occurred that we believe could have enabled termination of the contract at a much lower cost.”

Ontario’s famous billion-dollar boondoggle was a choice. If we’d gone to court, passed legislation or even just negotiated more aggressively, we likely would have come out hundreds of millions of dollars ahead. But they never even tried.

It’s time to stop treating deals that were problematic in the first place as more important than the livelihood of the people of Ontario.

I’ve heard from people in this province who, due to energy costs, are now using food banks, maxing out their credit cards and not heating their homes.

This is a scandal. It needs to be solved. And tearing up lousy contracts is a part of the solution.

[ZR]

Premier Kathleen Wynne was put on the hot seat Friday over her new hydro plan, not by reporters or opposition politicians, but by a ratepayer from Sturgeon Falls.
Wynne was making calls to people across the province who had written to her to complain about soaring electricity bills, a day after she announced an average 17-per-cent cut is coming this summer.
She made three of the calls with journalists in the room for a photo opportunity and while two of the people she called mostly thanked her for the announcement, a woman named Anita had some things to say.
Anita, who agreed to have reporters listen in on her call if her last name wasn't used, wanted to know why the 17-per-cent reduction is being achieved by spreading some costs over a longer period of time, akin to amortizing a mortgage over 30 years instead of 20, a move that will ultimately cost ratepayers billions of dollars in extra interest.
"That's like a mortgage on a house," she said. "With that extension I'll be paying my house five times."
Wynne said current ratepayers were footing the whole bill for investments that needed to be made to upgrade the electricity system, and since people in 15 or 20 years will still be making use of those assets, it's more fair to share the costs.
"It does mean it takes a bit longer to pay it off, it does mean it costs a bit more, but that's how mortgages work and there will be a benefit to those kids tomorrow, but you're ending up paying for too much of it today," Wynne said.
"OK," Anita said. But she wasn't done.
"What about those peak periods?" she said, saying time-of-use pricing wasn't helping people to lower their bills. "That's really a farce...People have done all they can, like washing at night and cleaning, whatever, turning down thermostats."
While time-of-use wasn't addressed in Thursday's announcement, Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault has said he is looking at changes to it as part of the province's new Long-Term Energy Plan, that he'll introduce this spring. He has said it doesn't make sense that a retired couple in Sudbury is on the same plan as a worker living in a Toronto condominium.
Anita's local utility is Greater Sudbury Hydro, but she wondered why the CEO of Hydro One is making $4 million at a time when people are struggling to pay their bills.
Wynne spoke about caps that her government is putting on executive compensation at broader public sector organizations — only, since Hydro One was partially privatized, it is not subject to those rules. The premier's office later said Wynne thought Anita was talking about Ontario Power Generation — which proposed a $3.8-million earnings cap for its CEO — and the premier would call her back to clarify.
Hydro One's corporate affairs executive vice-president said in an interview that they "understand and respect the question" about the CEO's salary.
"What's important to understand with executive compensation is this has now become a publicly traded company and the scale of this operation is $24 billion in assets, it's a $15-billion market cap company with $6 billion in revenue and growing," said Ferio Pugliese.
"What's important to know about executive compensation as well is that it's also anchored very much to performance, so I think what people are missing is that the CEO's compensation, 80 per cent of his compensation is tied to performance-based incentives, it's not just pure, base salary cash, he has to perform and deliver."
Hydro One CEO Mayo Schmidt earns a $850,000 base salary that could rise to a maximum of $4 million with bonuses.
Anita, who had Wynne on the phone for about 10 minutes, had some parting words of advice for the premier.
"One last thing: see that you get good advisers," she said. "Like, you say '(high hydro bills are) my mistake.' It's not only your mistake. You've got a team there working and some of those are really bad advisers."

[RedSN]

I heard that conversation with Anita. She seemed very intelligent and well grounded.

[5.4MarkVIII]

Too bad it falls on deaf ears.