stop wind energy fiscal hemorrhage before funding ‘Big Move’

Two of Toronto’s major newspapers recently had front page articles in respect to the Metrolinx “Big Move”.   The May 26th Toronto Star reported that “Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency, will finally tell us how to bankroll its $40 billion transit blueprint to unlock GTA gridlock over the next two decades.”  Then the Globe and Mail reported on May 30th that Premier Wynne is vowing to “charge ahead” with a massive $34 billion Metrolinx plan for upgrading transit services in the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area (GTHA). Consensus will be difficult to achieve.

Gridlocked wind worshippers pray for Metrolinx funding – Rod Gallant graphic

Wynne’s negotiations and “conversations” are yet to happen, but she is already “charging” ahead!  Under the Green Energy Act (GEA) her government has planned even more massive $40 billion extra charges for Ontario taxpayers and hydro customers, to subsidize wind power in the next two decades.
If she expects Ontarians to fork over $34 billion for the GTHA Big Move, Wynne needs to first put an immediate freeze on un-built wind energy projects that will cost us even more.

Ontario’s ratepayers are already paying an extra $1 billion plus per year in escalating electricity bills and taxes (via the application of the HST to utility bills) to subsidize the 1,200 turbines and backup gas plants built since the 2009 passage of the Green Energy Act.  On top of those subsidies Ontario’s taxpayers are picking up the $1 billion plus annual tab for the Ontario Clean Energy Benefit.

Ratepayers had no idea how much of an un-negotiated and unannounced charge would be appearing on their hydro bills when the GEA was passed.  They were told the costs would generate an increase of only 1% annually.
In future, ratepayers will be paying more and more as every new wind project comes on-line. Wind power rates were never negotiated with other political parties or with other levels of government.  As noted by the Auditor General’s report, no “cost/benefit” analysis was ever completed. Unless something is done quickly, simple arithmetic shows that extra wind energy costs will add $40 billion to our hydro and tax bills by May 2033.

Premier Wynne must stop the Wind Energy fiscal hemorrhage before she asks Ontarians to fund the “Big Move”.  She must recognize that ratepayers are also taxpayers, who will be expected to fund both the $40 billion in subsidies for additional wind factories while also picking up an additional $34 billion for the Metrolinx “Big Move .

It is time for Premier Wynne to terminate her industrial wind “revenue tool” before seeking other   “revenue tools” to fund the GTHA transit build.
Please help her come to this conclusion.
Garth Manning, Chair
County Coalition for Safe and Appropriate Green Energy