# Ontarians paid 37 billion above market price for electricity over eight years



## CPA Candidate (Dec 15, 2013)

LINK

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...ctricity-over-eight-years-ag/article27560753/

Here's your progressive, environmental left in action. Now coming to you on a federal level.


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## The_Tosser (Oct 20, 2015)

Well, when you're that far away from its production, you should expect to pay more 

It's good thing LED's are getting less pricier, since those somewhat expensive CFL's running @ about 6 month life span were getting a little tough to deal with after a while.


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## OnlyMyOpinion (Sep 1, 2013)

The_Tosser said:


> Well, when you're that far away from its production, you should expect to pay more ...


You mean 'far away' as in intra-provincial transmission? Because the province itself produces more than enough for its needs. It's just that the entire file has been very badly mismanaged for years. 
Good article, summarizes a litany of bad decisions and incompetence.


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## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

Did they just figure that out? Jeez they are dim. Everyone else has known what a **** show Ontario Hydro is for years. If you want to know where some of the billions went take a drive past the Wesleyville power plant project, started in 1970, still not finished.


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## fraser (May 15, 2010)

No surprise.

Luckless folks in Ontario have been paying over the odds for electricity since the late 70's....about the time Ontario Hydro started to go south. And then they went deep south.

What surprises me is that the voters put up with it for so long-both Conservative and Liberal Governments have mismanaged this terribly. They let the foxes into the henhouse and either can't figure out how to get them out or are afraid to push them out. Cowards.

They should have outsourced the whole mess to Manitoba Hydro or Quebec Hydro years ago. Now, luckless taxpayers pay over the odds for light and businesses are saying that the cost of electricity in the province could be a game changer (negative) for them.

Too late to close the gate now.


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

It was the PC Mike Harris government that really screwed it up, and we are still paying for it today.

I_*n 1998, the Progressive Conservative Party (PC) government of Mike Harris passed the Energy Competition Act which authorized the establishment of a market in electricity*. In April 1999, Ontario Hydro was re-organized into five successor companies: Ontario Power Generation, the Ontario Hydro Services Company (later renamed Hydro One), the Independent Electricity Market Operator (later renamed the Independent Electricity System Operator), the Electrical Safety Authority, and Ontario Electricity Financial Corporation. The two commercial companies, Ontario Power Generation and Hydro One, were intended to operate as private businesses rather than as crown corporations.

By 2001, Hydro One had acquired 88 municipal utilities. In December 2001 the provincial government announced its intention to sell Hydro One under an initial public offering (IPO), however by April 2002 various groups in opposition to the plan were able to challenge the government in the Ontario Superior Court, forcing a halt to the IPO.[13]

*In 2002, an electricity market began operating. However, critics questioned, among other things, whether the market was truly competitive or could ever become competitive, given that an electricity grid is not a private good. Public dismay at an increase in prices led the government of Harris's successor, Ernie Eves, to freeze electricity prices for residential and small business consumers. This freeze was maintained after the Liberal Party of Dalton McGuinty replaced the PC government in 2003. The freeze was removed and prices were raised in April 2004, and have been increased again subsequently.*_

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydro_One

So because of the Harris government's privatization scheme, customers pay "market" prices for hydro. All the Liberals did was remove the freeze installed by PC Ernie Eves when the costs started to rise. The Conservatives hid the rising cost by letting the debt build and a lack of modernization spending.

Beware anybody who wants to "privatize" public services to make them "market efficient".

Market efficient means you will pay more for less service. Highway 407 is another example of the failed PC privatization model.


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## GoldStone (Mar 6, 2011)

sags said:


> It was the PC Mike Harris government that really screwed it up, and we are still paying for it today.


LOL, sags, you are funny. Open G&M article in the first post.

Quote:

"*Ontarians have paid $37-billion more than market price for electricity over eight years* and will pay another $133-billion extra by 2032 as a result of haphazard planning and political meddling, a report from the Auditor-General says. *The Liberal government has repeatedly overruled expert advice* – and even tore up two long-term plans from the Ontario Power Authority for the electricity system – in favour of political decisions that drove up power costs for consumers, the report says."

You can't pin this on Mike Harris. You just can't. Not with a straight face, anyway.


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## GoldStone (Mar 6, 2011)

Another quote from G&M:

"Mr. Chiarelli also contended that some of the higher electricity prices were a cost of weaning the province off coal-fired power and onto cleaner sources.

But Ms. Lysyk [Auditor-General] said Ontario pays more for green power than other jurisdictions. *Compared to U.S. prices, the cost of wind power in Ontario is double and solar power is more than triple.* The 2010 Green Energy Act, Ms. Lysyk said, failed to take advantage of low electricity prices and instead mandated higher prices for wind and solar power companies than they had received previously. *This added up to $9.2-billion more in renewables costs.*"

Let me guess? Mike Harris is responsible for the 2010 Green Energy Act. Is that right, sags?


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## GoldStone (Mar 6, 2011)

One more quote:

"But it all paled compared to [A-G] criticisms of the government’s management of the electricity system.

By law, the Ontario Power Authority (OPA), which has now merged into the Independent Electricity System Operator, was supposed to provide a long-term plan for electricity that independent regulators would vet. But *Ms. Lysyk found that in 2007 and 2011, OPA produced such a plan only to have the Liberals overrule it and make ad-hoc decisions on the system by fiat.*

*As a result, electricity prices for consumers and small businesses jumped by 70 per cent *– from 5.32 cents per kilowatt hour to 9.06 cents – between 2006 and 2014, she found. The largest part of the reason for that is an increase to Global Adjustment Fees, which for the past decade have paid power-generating companies more than market price for their power as an incentive to set up in Ontario. Those fees amounted to $37-billion between 2006 and 2014, and are projected to add $133-billion from 2015 to 2032."

Ad-hoc decisions in 2007 and 2011, sags. Please pray-tell, is that Mike Harris?

(sorry sags, you make it all too easy)


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

You are quoting the G&M article synopsis of the auditor report and it isn't accurate.

For example..........on the issue of solar and wind power pricing, the auditor report said...........

_For example, we calculated that electricity consumers have had to pay $9.2 billion more (the IESO calculates this amount to be closer to $5.3 billion in order to reflect the time value of money) for power from renewable energy electricity projects *over the 20-year contract terms* under the Ministry’s current guaranteed-price renewable program *than they would have paid *under the previous procurement process._

Previous prices provided little or no incentive for companies to invest in solar and wind power. The price of development of alternative energy 20 years ago was a lot higher than it is today.

The higher prices worked well, as many solar and wind projects are being developed across Ontario. As the cost of developing them comes down........so will hydro prices to consumers.

The auditor reports also said that Ontario prices compared favorably with other Canadian suppliers, but were higher than in the US.

A lot of things cost more in Canada than in the US, simply due to distance and population density.

Mike Harris left a broken down mess when he disbanded Ontario Hydro in preparation for privatization, which he backed away from..........and the Liberals have had to deal with it ever since.


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## Jaberwock (Aug 22, 2012)

Ontario Hydro was a broken down mess long before Harris came onto the scene. Privatization would have helped, it's a pity he never went through with it. Privately owned, publicly regulated utilities work best.


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## fraser (May 15, 2010)

Absolutely. It started with the huge cost overruns on the nuclear plants. Massive debt just moved from one fiscal period to the next with little or no pay down.

And Provincial Governments..Conservative, Liberal, and NDP who decided not to do anything about it because of fear of electoral backlash. They are all to blame for doing nothing but making a terrible situation the disaster that it now is.

Blaming one Party over another is pointless.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

I think it is entirely appropriate to heap scorn on the Liberals when it comes to the feed in tariff program. It was predictably a fiscal disaster, and remarkably ineffective in achieving the goal of reducing emissions. It would have been much better to implement a carbon tax and regulate pollution emissions more stringently (closing the coal plants was probably the right thing).


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