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Liberal Party of Ontario

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

January 22, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

Wednesday, January 22, 2013By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday, January 22, 2013

Ontario paid $1 billion to export surplus power in 2013, NDP say

Ontario Ratepayers help electrify Manitoba, Quebec, New York, Michigan, and Minnesota.

Poor planning by Ontario’s Liberal government forced electricity ratepayers in the province to subsidize the sale of excess power to neighbouring jurisdictions at a cost of $1 billion in 2013, the New Democrats charged Monday.

The government signed contracts for so much unneeded electricity that Ontario had to export the surplus, at a loss, to Manitoba, Quebec, New York, Michigan or Minnesota, adding $220 a year to the average household electricity bill, said NDP energy critic Peter Tabuns.

“We found that last year Ontario subsidized power to people in the United States and Quebec and Manitoba to the tune of over $1 billion,” he said. “It’s an extraordinary expense that people are carrying on their electricity bills.”

McGuinty’s bold Hydro plan in 2003

The province buys electricity for about 8.5 cents a kilowatt hour, often through contracts that include generous subsidies for solar and wind power, but then has to sell off the surplus for less than three cents a KWH, said Tabuns.

“They have pursued private power contracts that have given us more power than we can consume, which goes back to bad planning and to (energy) policies that are extraordinarily expensive,” he said. “This is the logical outcome of the way the Liberals have approached this privatized power system.”

A spokeswoman for Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli said “Tabuns’ math is inaccurate” and insisted that exporting surplus power actually saved hydro ratepayers about $300 million that they would have had to pay for the unneeded electricity last year.

“According to the Independent Electricity System Operator, Ontario’s consumers benefit from the electricity exports,” said press secretary Beckie Codd-Downey. “They do not subsidize them.”

But the Progressive Conservatives also blamed bad Liberal energy policies for driving up Ontario electricity rates to among the highest in Canada, and said subsidizing power exports only adds to people’s anger over their hydro bills. (Source: CTV News)

Posted in: Ontario Tagged: hydro, Liberal Party of Ontario, Ontario, rates

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

October 21, 2013 by Graeme MacKay

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Kathleen Wynne to launch ‘open government’ push to boost transparency

Premier Kathleen Wynne wants to fling open the doors of government.

Dogged by the lingering controversy over the Liberals’ shadowy cancellation of two gas plants at a cost of up $1.1 billion, Wynne is pushing for greater transparency at Queen’s Park.

“Together, let’s do government differently,” the premier writes in an unusual open letter to Ontarians to be released Monday.

“We need to make information easier to find, understand and use, so that we can design services that deliver better results to the people of Ontario. We must also unlock public data so that you can help us solve problems and find new ways of doing things.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Can't Wynne on spelling CHRIS YOUNG / THE CANADIAN PRESS

Ontario Premier Kathleen Can’t Wynne on spelling
CHRIS YOUNG / THE CANADIAN PRESS

“I believe that government data belongs to the people of Ontario and so we will make government data open by default, limiting access only to safeguard privacy, security and confidentiality.”

To that end, the premier will turn to a top academic, a respected former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister, business leaders, and a bevy of experts on “open government” to improve public access to the inner workings of the province.

Wynne wants her administration to “open up more data and information” so Ontarians can “engage in the decision-making process and the development of policy.”

She hopes that along with making government more accountable, the availability of more data will “boost innovation and economic productivity.”

“By putting data online for fresh analysis, we can spark innovative discoveries that could help grow our economy and improve peoples’ lives,” she writes in her letter. (Source: Toronto Star)

[slideshow_deploy id=’824′]

Posted in: Ontario Tagged: accountability, Editorial Cartoon, Gas Plant Scandal, government, Kathleen Wynne, Liberal Party of Ontario, Ontario, open government, transparency

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This website contains satirical commentaries of current events going back several decades. Some readers may not share this sense of humour nor the opinions expressed by the artist. To understand editorial cartoons it is important to understand their effectiveness as a counterweight to power. It is presumed readers approach satire with a broad minded foundation and healthy knowledge of objective facts of the subjects depicted.

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