Quebec comes to the table with a seeming abundance of low-cost, low-carbon hydroelectricity available for export.
Soaring electricity rates are sending Liberal support tumbling. Wind and solar are down and out. Carbon pricing is looming. Nuclear power remains radioactive. Is there a silver bullet to rescue the Ontario government from its energy morass?
Here’s a hint: Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard is in town Friday with his top ministers for a joint meeting with Kathleen Wynne’s cabinet. On the agenda: Electricity sharing between the two neighbouring provinces.
Quebec comes to the table with a seeming abundance of low-cost, low-carbon hydroelectricity available for export. Ontario has its back to the wall, weighed down by rising prices and an electricity system that seems out of sync with the times.
The wind blows hard when we don’t need it (at night); and doesn’t when we desperately want it. Our gas-fired power plants generate unwanted carbon, and they’re not cheap. Our nuclear reactors cost a bomb — going billions over budget time after time, and imposing radioactive half-life problems for all time.
Why not string a few more wires across the invisible frontier between Quebec and Ontario? Isn’t it time to end decades of de facto electricity separatism here in Ontario that placed a premium on self-sufficiency — in case of Quebec independence — but left us overly dependent on nuclear?
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