THUNDER BAY – Going into a question and answer session with Northwestern Ontario municipal leaders, the province’s energy minister knew he would be pressed on the “elephant in the room.”
Sure enough, Glenn Thibeault was questioned by a number of Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association delegates on the state of electricity rates throughout the province at the organization’s bear pit session on Friday, which closed their three-day conference.
Thibeault outlined a number of initiatives rolled out by the Wynne government, including the Fair Hydro Plan. That policy, announced in March, is projected to lower residential bills by an average of 25 per cent through a shifting of costs onto future ratepayers.
After the session, the energy minister was asked to address criticism the government has received that the restructuring won’t be a true reduction.
“They’re right. It is going to cost us more money over a longer period of time but at the end of the day, this is fair,” Thibeault said.
“We’re making sure that everyone who will utilize these generation assets and these transmission lines will actually pay their fair share. It’s like your mortgage. If you were to extend your mortgage, you actually lower your costs of the mortgage but pay it over a longer period of time which ends up costing you more.”
The announcement of the Fair Hydro Plan, which will take effect on May 1, came after the eight per cent reduction of the provincial portion of the HST off bills wasn’t enough to curb escalating costs.
There are a number of measures being introduced that will alleviate pressure on Hydro One customers, who are charged with some of the highest distribution costs in Ontario. An enhancement to the Rural Remote Rate Protection Plan will see $60 per month taken off the bills of low density residential ratepayers.
Thibeault said historical underinvestment in the electricity system by all three Ontario political parties put the current Liberal government, which first took power in 2003, in a positon where spending money on improvements was inevitable.
“We as a government, I think, have done a very poor job of talking about the investments we’ve made to make sure we have the grid we have when it comes to electricity,” Thibeault told the delegates.
“If we go back to 2002 and 2003 as a province, the rolling brown outs and blackouts we were experiencing right across the province, we had to address that. We had to make a choice that we can fix that or we can continue to let that happen. We made the choice to fix it and that came at a cost of $50 billion.”
Shuniah mayor Wendy Landry, who was elected NOMA president on Thursday, said electricity prices are a significant issue in her community and throughout Northwestern Ontario.
“Across the region Hydro One rates and distribution rates are high. That is a concern for everybody who is trying to pay all their bills all the time,” Landry said.
As well, Thibeault was pressed by Nipigon Coun. Jim Foulds about the utilization of the Thunder Bay and Atikokan generating stations, who argued increasing their production could reduce the need for costly new transmission lines.
Thibeault said the former coal plants that have been converted to biomass are “important assets” in the region, especially with an anticipated need for additional power generation in Northern Ontario through new mining projects and an increased emphasis on electricity to meet climate change targets.
But that power isn’t consistently required right now, he said, noting the two plants ran for “24 hours straight” last summer to meet peak demand.
“These are stations that are going to be needed. We need to maintain these stations but at the same time make sure they’re only utilized when we need the power, especially in this region,” Thibeault said.
