[Ontario government] Smart Meters continue to be stupid – by Christina Blizzard (Toronto Sun – December 10, 2014)

http://www.torontosun.com/

Turns out Smart Meters were a really dumb idea. Who knew? Well, beleaguered homeowners desperately trying to pay their skyrocketing hydro bills certainly had a pretty good idea.

Now the provincial auditor has confirmed with cold, hard facts about what hydro customers have been saying for the past seven years.

In her damning report Tuesday, auditor general Bonnie Lysyk painted a sorry picture of how your hydro bill ran so far out of control. The savings we were promised for Smart Meters didn’t materialize – and the Liberal governments of Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne have wreaked untold misery and hardship on households across the province.

Anyone who’s opened a hydro bill and groaned or wept at the staggering costs it’s added to their household costs can see how badly Smart Meters were bungled by the Liberals.

They massively over-estimated the net benefits – easy to do when you consider that, unlike other jurisdictions, they didn’t bother to do a cost-benefit analysis.

The Liberals projected Smart Meters would have a net benefit of $600 million over 15 years. Turns out, they were $512 million wrong.

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Long road back for Ontario economy – by Christina Blizzard (Toronto Sun – December 6, 2014)

http://www.torontosun.com/

TORONTO – Economic Development Minister Brad Duguid was putting a happy face on gloomy job figures Friday, saying it was all a question of, “two steps forward, one back.” I’m not so sure.

After two months of increases in employment, this province saw a drop of 34,000 jobs in November. That pushed the unemployment rate up to 7%.

While Duguid was optimistic about the future of manufacturing in this province, there are some stubborn, worrying signs that things just aren’t coming back.

This is the same government that’s always blamed a high Canadian dollar for the “hollowing out” of this province and blamed the loss of so many manufacturing jobs on a world-wide economic downturn.

Well, the Canadian dollar has dropped and the U.S. economy is showing strong growth. The rest of this country is chugging along at a better rate than Ontario. So what’s down the road?

“I think it’s always better for us when the Canadian dollar is down,” Duguid told reporters.

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Ontario’s economy lurches from disaster to disaster – by Livio Di Matteo (Troy Media – November 27, 2014)

http://www.troymedia.com/

Livio Di Matteo is Professor of Economics at Thunder Bay’s Lakehead University.

The province has surpassed Quebec as the largest federal total transfer recipient in the country

THUNDER BAY, ON/ Troy Media/ – Ontario’s economic prospects have declined, with implications – despite Finance Minister Sousa’s insistence he can balance the budget – for both its future standard of living and its fiscal position.

Although employment, fueled by a lower dollar, has rebounded, the province’s economic fall from grace over the last two decades is evident from a number of key economic indicators.

While still the largest economy among the 10 provinces, its share of provincial output dropped from 42 per cent in 1990 to 37 per cent by 2013. Its real per capita GDP was the second highest (after Alberta) in 1990 but has dropped to fifth place, behind British Columbia and above Manitoba. Its real per capita GDP growth has been one of the lowest in the country.

Ontario’s economy reached a crucial point after the 1980s economic boom that saw free trade with the U.S. and a shift away from the traditional east-west economic alignment. After the jarring recession of the early 1990s, its decline was forestalled by both a combination of a lower dollar and booming U.S.  economy, which drove Ontario’s export sector, and a public sector restructuring that lowered taxes.

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Ontario lecturing Harper on good government is laughable 133 – by Christina Blizzard (Toronto Sun – November 25, 2014)

 http://www.torontosun.com/

TORONTO – They’re the terrible twins of Confederation: Ontario and Quebec. Yet like two wayward, know-it-all teenagers, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and her Quebec counterpart, Philippe Couillard, have taken to lecturing the grown-ups about what they’re doing wrong.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, like a bemused dad, rolls his eyes and ignores them — which as any parent will tell you is the best way to deal with kids who act out.

Except these two aren’t just seeking attention. They want his money. Quebec and Ontario are the two most indebted provinces. It’s almost as if they’re competing with each other. Who can dream up the costliest program to drive their province deeper in the red? Quebec comes up with $7-a-day daycare? We’ll raise that — and see you with full-day kindergarten.

Wynne and her government use any opportunity they can to slam Harper. Clearly, they’re trying to help federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau as we head into next year’s federal election. Don’t forget, some of Trudeau’s advisers are the people who brought former premier Dalton McGuinty to power.

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Renewables are not enough – by Margaret Wente (Globe and Mail – November 25, 2014)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

All over Ontario, giant wind turbines are sprouting up across the rural landscape and ruining people’s lives. Ordinary people are trying to fight them off in court, but they don’t have a chance. The multinational wind industry has a lot more money than they do. The law is on Big Wind’s side. So is Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government, which has pledged to triple the number of wind and solar generators and stick taxpayers with the bill.

But the fundamental problem with Big Wind is much bigger than its cost and unreliability. The problem is that today’s renewable energy technologies won’t save us from the effects of climate change – and we’re wasting our time by trying.

That’s the conclusion Google has reached. Google has invested many years and significant resources in tackling the world’s climate and energy problems. Its biggest initiative was called RE<C (Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal), a massive effort to find renewable energy sources that could compete in cost with coal.

Last week, Ross Koningstein and David Fork, two of the engineers at the heart of the RE<C project, published an article describing what they learned, and why Google threw in the towel. “We had shared the attitude of many stalwart environmentalists,” they wrote.

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Quebec-Ontario power-sharing shows energy synergy – by Martin Regg Cohn (Toronto Star – November 20, 2014)

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Quebec has put separatism on the backburner. Is Ontario ready to reciprocate — by renouncing its own costly history of electricity separatism?

For decades, Ontario built political moats around its nuclear reactors — and raised the drawbridges to prevent the flow of cheaper hydroelectric power from our neighbouring province. But as Central Canada faces up to an era of economic upheaval and energy uncertainty, against a backdrop of newfound political stability, the calculus is changing.

We’ll get a hint of the economic and political benefits of energy co-operation Friday, when Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard and a dozen of his senior ministers sit down with Ontario’s cabinet. The meetings of ministers will produce a meeting of minds:

After months of negotiations kicked off by Wynne and Couillard, the two provinces are set to sign a historic power-sharing agreement — electrical, not political. The goal is to backstop each other’s base load electricity during peak periods, going beyond the traditional stop-gap approach of buying and selling power on short-term deals at peak periods.

This new approach will lead to ongoing power swaps without any money changing hands: Quebec’s peak load occurs during the winter heating season, when electrical baseboard heating puts a strain on its abundant reservoirs of hydroelectricity.

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[Ontario mining and manufacturing] Rip-it-and-ship-it Versus Value-added – by James Cuddy (Northern Policy Institute Blog – October 2014)

http://northernpolicy.wordpress.com/

James Cuddy, Senior Policy Analyst with Northern Policy Institute

It’s a common concern that Northern Ontario is not developing industries that will add-value to raw mining and forestry materials before they are exported for use elsewhere. So, why can’t we build processing and manufacturing facilities and then sell the value-added products to the world?

Mike Moffatt puts it simply: “If there is a business case to do so, then absolutely [we can].” The notion that there is a ‘business case’ to develop processing and manufacturing facilities embodies the concept of comparative advantage.

Northern Ontario’s primary industries exist because the region has an abundance of minerals in the ground and trees on the land that can be extracted and exported. Northern Ontario is endowed with natural resources that not everyone else has; this is what gives the region its comparative advantage in these industries.

On the other hand, it is not necessarily clear that the region has a comparative advantage in value-added forest and mining products – i.e., processing and manufacturing of raw materials. Since a processing facility can be located almost anywhere, there are many additional factors – over and above having raw materials nearby – that affect where Northern Ontario’s comparative advantage (or disadvantage) lie for value-added industries.

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How green energy is fleecing Ontario electricity consumers – by Ross McKitrick and Tom Adams (National Post -October 30, 2014

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Adding renewable generating capacity triggers changes throughout the system that multiply costs for consumers

Ontario’s green energy transformation – initiated a decade ago under then-Premier Dalton McGuinty – is now hitting consumers. The Nov 1 increase for households is the next twist of that screw. As Ontario consumers know all too well, the province has gone from having affordable electricity to having some of the highest and fastest-increasing rates in Canada.

Last year, in a report for the Fraser Institute called “Environmental and Economic Consequences of Ontario’s Green Energy Act,” one of us (McKitrick) explained how the Green Energy Act, passed in 2009, yielded at best tiny environmental benefits that cost at least ten times more than conventional pollution control methods, and was directly harming growth by driving down rates of return in key sectors like manufacturing.

But complex financial structures and a lack of official disclosure around large embedded costs have let supporters of the green energy act deny that green power is responsible for the price hikes. Green industry advocates, including the consulting firm Power Advisory and advocacy group Environmental Defense, have added up the direct payments to new renewable generators, and concluded that since those costs are relatively small, the impact of renewables on the total cost of power is likewise small.

However, such analyses ignore the indirect costs that arise from the way renewables interact with the rest of the power system.

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Ontario Premier Wynne’s China visit seeks to reduce U.S. reliance – by Adrian Morrow (Globe and Mail – October 25, 2014)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Mr. Fang suggested the two countries also work together on the Ring of Fire, a large
chromite deposit north of Thunder Bay. China could use the minerals, he said, if
Ontario can get the necessary rail line built to haul the ore out of the Ring’s
remote location.

TORONTO — Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne will make a full-court press for trade in China next week as she seeks to expand her province’s sluggish economy and wean it off its long-standing dependence on the American market.

The trip unfolds against a backdrop of heightened tension in Sino-Canadian relations. Ottawa and Beijing have accused each other of espionage in recent months, while China continues to grapple with lingering pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. And Ms. Wynne, who is making her first overseas trip as Premier, is pledging not to shy away from raising thorny human-rights issues during her visit.

“I absolutely support peoples’ right to freedom of speech and the right to gather peacefully. I’ve said that to Chinese representatives here, I will say that in China,” she said in an interview at her Queen’s Park office.

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Maximizing the mess with Ontario’s electricity assets – by Parker Gallant (National Post – October 21, 2014)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Hydro One paid $93-million for Norfolk Power, about 28.5 times profits. That’s pure insanity

Ontario’s electricity sector is in rough shape, burdened with escalating costs and an interfering government. Not much change or improvement is likely if the government takes up the schemes promoted last week in a speech by Ed Clark, the former CEO of TD Bank who now heads the province’s “Advisory Council on Government Assets.” The objective of the council is to look at three current government monopolies so as to “maximize the value to the people of Ontario.”

We’ll leave Mr. Clark’s comments on the liquor business to others. When it comes to the two electricity monopolies – Ontario Power Generation and Hydro One – Mr. Clark and his council’s proposals seem destined to maximize the mess rather than the value of Ontario’s power sector.

On OPG, the $39-billion asset company that owns gas, hydro and nuclear power installations all over the province, Mr. Clark proposed that it be split into two entities: one to manage existing generation sources and another to manage the Darlington nuclear refurbishment. The speech is silent on what happens to the Pickering nuclear plant.

The OPG proposal looks like an effort to simply create another electricity bureaucracy. For that reason it is impossible to see what benefits will be generated that will “maximize value.” Many large European and U.S. generators successfully produce power from a variety of fuels and there is no reason why OPG cannot do the same if properly managed.

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Ontario talks hydro trade with Quebec and Manitoba – by John Spears (Toronto Star – August 27, 2014)

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Ontario’s energy minister Bob Chiarelli has talked to Quebec and Manitoba about increased hydro power imports

Ontario’s energy minister says he has held direct talks with his counterparts from Quebec and Manitoba about importing more electricity into Ontario.

But Bob Chiarelli cautioned that making deals is “not a slam dunk in any way.” Chiarelli made the comments at the annual meeting of federal and provincial energy and mines ministers, which wrapped up Tuesday in Sudbury.

He said the one-on-one meetings with Quebec and Manitoba officials during the federal-provincial conference were useful.

“We discussed specifically and in detail the opportunities and the challenges that exist for us to have more energy contracts to supply Ontario,” he said at a news conference following the meeting.

Ontario is mulling huge new investments in nuclear power, and has established programs for renewable power developments. But Premier Kathleen Wynne has spoken publicly about buying more electricity from Quebec as well.

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Quebec-Ontario electricity trade is smart, but not simple – by Christopher Ragan (Globe and Mail – August 26, 2014)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Last week, Quebec’s and Ontario’s premiers announced their desire to work together on crucial issues, including climate change, interprovincial trade and infrastructure. It is very positive for Canada when our two largest provinces recognize the benefits of co-operation. We should certainly hope they succeed, but let’s also be mindful of the obstacles in their way.

Especially interesting is the prospect of greater interprovincial trade in electricity. This would be a game-changer in Canada, and a very positive one. Quebec has a great deal of low-cost hydroelectricity available to export, and its current U.S. markets are becoming less interested in purchasing long-distance hydro power because of their own development of low-price shale gas.

At the same time, Ontario’s economy continues to grow but has few options for increasing its electricity capacity at costs anywhere close to Quebec’s. So the idea of Ontario buying electricity from Quebec is obviously sensible.

Any idea that is so obviously sensible must have serious problems, and there are at least three that come to mind.

The first will be the pressures from within Ontario to resist importing cheaper Quebec electricity. It will be argued that Ontario has built a world-class nuclear industry and that refurbishing existing nuclear plants and building new ones is necessary to keep this expertise at home.

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Wynne, Couillard to push national energy strategy at premiers conference – by Jane Taber (Globe and Mail – August 25, 2014)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Bolstered by the new partnership with her Quebec counterpart, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is eyeing Quebec’s abundant hydro power to light up Northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire development and reinvigorate talks for a national energy strategy.

She and Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard, both rookie premiers with majority mandates, recently forged a central Canadian alliance to co-operate on issues and bring prosperity back to their provinces.

Beginning on Aug. 26, all of the premiers will meet at the Council of the Federation in Prince Edward Island, and she and Mr. Couillard hope to come to the table with a “shared position” on a Canadian energy strategy. Under the previous separatist government – Mr. Couillard defeated Parti Québécois premier Pauline Marois in the spring provincial election – Quebec refused to participate in a Canada-wide strategy.

“It’s a different situation when there’s a strong federalist premier in Quebec,” Ms. Wynne said in an interview.

In addition, their new alliance calls for potentially increasing electricity trade between the two provinces. Northern Ontario is in dire need of infrastructure to help develop the Ring of Fire, which could provide thousands of jobs to the province and about $60-billion to its economy, according to the provincial government’s estimates.

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Ontario’s Wynne, Quebec’s Couillard forge central Canadian alliance – by Jane Taber (Globe and Mail – August 22, 2014)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Ontario and Quebec are forging a central Canadian alliance to co-operate on issues, including potentially expanding electricity trade, hoping their combined clout will bring back prosperity to both provinces.

Ontario’s Kathleen Wynne and Quebec’s Philippe Couillard announced the new regional partnership in Quebec City on Thursday. It is the first time the rookie Liberal premiers – both leading so-called have-not provinces – have met in person. According to one senior Ontario official, there is “a lot of personal like-mindedness and great rapport between the two.”

A bullish Mr. Couillard said the new central Canadian alliance signals the two provinces are “back as a very important block of influence in the country.”

“I think by acting together we will be more efficient,” he said. “When we have common concerns like infrastructure, like climate change, like energy strategy, it’s good that we voice those concerns together … Western provinces do the same, Maritime provinces do the same. It was time that Quebec and Ontario, again, do that.”

As have-not provinces, Ontario and Quebec rely on millions of dollars of federal equalization payments as they struggle in the federation economically.

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Ontario should import low-cost hydroelectric power from Quebec – by Jack Gibbons (Toronto Star – July 21, 2014)

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Jack Gibbons is chair of the Ontario Clean Air Alliance.

Their highly radioactive waste will linger forever, but the elderly nuclear reactors that provide half of Ontario’s electricity will soon reach the end of their lives. And the task of rebuilding them, currently in the planning stages, will almost certainly burden the fiscally crippled province with even more debt while electricity prices maintain their steeply upward trajectory for decades to come.

As an alternative, letting the oldest reactors die and replacing their output with clean, renewable water power from Quebec could save Ontario $600 million a year in foregone nuclear costs — beginning as soon as the two neighbours decide to end the electricity separatism that has traditionally stood in the way of such a logical and mutually beneficial hookup.

Quebec is the fourth-largest producer of hydroelectric power in the world and its electricity rates are among the lowest in North America. Its residential rates are 45 per cent lower than ours and its industrial rates are 55 per cent lower. In recent years, the province has produced far more cheap, clean electricity than it can use itself.

Meanwhile, its next-door neighbour, Ontario, is struggling with some of the highest power costs in the country and facing a minimum $13-billion bill to refurbish the Darlington nuclear reactors. There is already enough transmission capacity linking the two provinces to replace 97 per cent of the power currently produced by Darlington — and a tremendous opportunity to strike a deal that would provide huge economic benefits for both provinces.

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