By David Reevely and Joanne Chianello, Ottawa Citizen, June 9, 2014
Energy
Liberals
The Liberals have a long-term plan based on conservation, continuing contracts with wind- and solar-energy companies, and refurbishing a handful of nuclear reactors to extend their lives by decades. The party admits the obvious: that electricity bills have risen over the last 10 years, and that they’ll continue to increase for several years to come. But the Liberals say that’s making up for decades of starving Ontario’s electricity system, to the point where we had daily warnings of brownouts in summer and a multibillion-dollar debt on the books from Ontario Hydro. They’ve also all but shut down coal generating plants in Ontario, slashing pollution and greenhouse-gas emissions. They say they’d end the special debt-retirement charge on residential hydro bills by 2016, at the same time as their arbitrary “clean-energy benefit” rebate ends. They’d also merge two of Ontario Hydro’s successor agencies, the Ontario Power Authority and the Independent Electricity System Operator.
