From 1996-2003 the PCs let Ontario’s overall installed generation capacity fall 6% - that’s like running Niagara Falls Dry – at the same time demand grew by 8%.
Under the Liberal Party Ontario’s residential rates are forecast to rise by 2.8% annually over the next twenty years. According to the National Energy Board, that’s less than in most other large Canadian provinces:
- Alberta... 3.7%
- BC... 3.0%
- Manitoba... 3.2%
- Quebec... 3.0%
- Saskatchewan... 3.3%
Ontario’s industrial rates also compare favourably with other jurisdictions, despite what the PCs claim. Industrial rates in Southern Ontario are lower than in Alberta, Michigan, New Jersey and California and in line with states like New York, Virginia, and Tennessee.
And while other jurisdictions are still burning dirty coal for two-thirds of their power, our government is proud that we have achieved competitive rates while undertaking the largest climate change initiative in North America. We’re ensuring cleaner air for Ontarians and reducing Ontario’s greenhouse gas emissions to historically low levels.
Hudak thinks the PC's can lower hydro rates by cancelling renewable energy, the cost of which is dwarfed by the new nuclear reactors he wants to build - for power we don’t need. He wants to kill the 31,000 thousand jobs our government has created as part of a strategy to build a clean, reliable and affordable energy system.
The PC's want to go right back to their failed energy strategies of the Hudak-Harris government, when the reliability of our system was eroded while costs ballooned thanks to privatization experiments that benefitted PC insiders.