The Doug Ford government's plans for increasing electrical power in the Province of Ontario

by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU. CHISU, CD, PMSC, FEC, CET, P. Eng. Former Member of Parliament Pickering-Scarborough East In view of a future need for electrical power in the Province of Ontario, the Doug Ford conservative government is looking for ways to enhance the capacity of Ontario power production. However, in increasing electrical production capacity, the government has, basically put the emphasis only on increasing the number of gas-fired power plants. Presently Ontario's electricity system has among the lowest rates of CO2 emissions in North America, with roughly half of the annual supply provided by nuclear power, one-quarter by hydro dams, and one-tenth by wind turbines. The gas-powered plants account for only about ten percent. The Ford government has decided to go ahead with building more gas-fired power plants in Ontario, neglecting the cleaner nuclear energy which has served Ontario so well. It is becoming quite clear that we cannot expect any better from a government, which is so technologically behind that it is incapable of promoting new and progressive ideas to produce clean, green, recycled-fuel nuclear energy. So let us try to understand what they are about. The province is currently soliciting bids for additional gas-fired electricity generation, which means either new gas plants are built, or existing gas plants are expanded. It's poised to be Ontario's biggest increase in the gas-fired power supply in more than a decade, since the previous Liberal government scrapped two gas plants, in Mississauga and Oakville, at a cost to taxpayers the auditor general pegged at around $1 billion. Well, here we go again, the new old never ends, costing the taxpayer again and again. The excuse, according to Ford's energy minister, Todd Smith, is that Ontario needs gas plants now to help meet an expected surge in demand for electricity and to provide power while some units of the province's nuclear stations are down for refurbishment. Suddenly we need more energy? Not long ago we paid handsome sums for the US to take our surplus energy, due to a sharp decline in manufacturing industries. This random, scattered policy illustrates the real problem that the political leadership is facing in shaping the future of Ontario. In a quite apocalyptic declaration Minister Smith said, "It's really important to have natural gas as an insurance policy to be there to keep the lights on and provide the reliability that we need." In supporting his Minister, Ford has been touting the province's "clean energy advantage" as one of the key reasons Volkswagen chose Ontario for a $7-billion electric vehicle battery plant. Certainly, this plant looks important for Ontario as well as Canada, but nobody seems to be asking, at what cost to Ontarians?' Corporate welfare eh…. Ontario doesn't really need new gas plants to meet the demand for electricity. It needs more modern nuclear that recycles spent fuel, and dynamic power storage systems based simply on using water level management. Instead of these simple engineering solutions, Ontario and Canada are favoring a grid electricity battery storage facility which is said to be the largest in Canada. It is set to open in two years on Indigenous land in southwestern Ontario, with Six Nations of the Grand River and Ottawa as investors. It is an interesting and innovative way to invest taxpayers' money. The grid battery storage solution may jive with similar storage sites, mostly in the US, but these sites have their own problems and will not necessarily resolve the problem of energy storage in its entirety. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has claimed the project will store up to 250 megawatts of electricity. Is that enough? In fact, more energy efficiency and conservation programs are needed in order to better manage our electrical energy needs. For one thing, the Ford conservative government's push to generate more of Ontario's electricity from natural gas has the potential to conflict with the Trudeau liberal government's push for Canada's grid to have net zero emissions by 2035. The companies who would build Ontario's new gas-fired power plants have nothing to worry about, though, because even if the feds shut them down, the Ford government is promising that they will continue to get paid. This has all the makings of a well-known recipe for a gas-plant scandal, similar to what the province saw in the 2010s under Dalton McGuinty's Liberal government. There is a very real risk that we will not only get these new gas power plants, but we will be continuing to pay for them long after they are required to shut down. Yet again, squandering taxpayers' money without heeding consequences. I will conclude now before I get too technical, but I think it is a time to reflect on what our political leaders of any color or shape are doing with the taxpayers' money. I leave it to you to ponder.