Kanada : March 08, 2010

A government strategy to subsidize Ontario’s Green Energy Industry is starting to cost provincial businesses and households a dear premium.  Consumers in Ontario are now paying the biggest markups on electricity pricing in the country as a Provincial Benefit.  At the same time electricity demand and market pricing are dropping, electricity bills have been rising on the strength of some very generous contracts, which were signed by the province power planning agency, and past expenditures.  Ontario residents and businesses paid more than $4.2 billion for the provincial benefit in 2009 and this figure is expected to increase during 2010.  In 2008, the provincial benefit raised $901 million or less than 25 percent of the 2009 figure.

The Government is seducing green energy investors with guaranteed long-term (20 years) revenue producing deals.  The Ontario Power Authority (OPA) is contracted to pay on average $0.42 per kilowatt hour (kWh) for wind and solar energy and resell back to the community at $0.05 per kWh or a loss of 37 cents per kWh.  The contract holders are receiving from the OPA a fixed price of 13.5 cents per kWh for on-shore wind farm generation and up to 80.2 cents per kWh for solar power.

As our economy has downturned, the province has lost thousands of jobs in what was once the manufacturing heartland of Canada.  The Government has promised that various green initiatives will create thousands of new jobs; however, many of these jobs have yet to materialize. It is too early to tell whether these costly green projects will one day reap a benefit for Ontario as well as Canada on a whole, but one thing is sure – each time we flip the light switch, we are paying the price for our future.