I’ve got to tell you … I am getting tired of chasing Glenn Thibeault around the media, correcting his falsehoods and misleading statements. I would say to him: Please spend more time trying to fix the energy poverty you’ve created, rather than exerting so much effort spinning stories in the media!
Nonetheless, I simply cannot let his latest nonsense go unanswered – it’s not fair to the good people of Sudbury to be misled like that.
So let’s start by reviewing the four comments I made on Northern Life’s Sudbury.com. The column started with me sharing the independent Financial Accountability Officer’s (FAO) pronouncement that households in Northern Ontario pay 25-per-cent more in energy costs than those in Toronto.
He went on to report that for electricity costs specifically, we northerners pay 45-per-cent more. This was followed by the Energy Board’s findings that 567,000 families were behind in their hydro bills, and that 60,000 residential customers were disconnected from hydro. Are these the “misleading” comments Glenn is referring to?
The column then discussed the lack of reliability of Ontario’s hydro system, by quoting the ‘Blackout Tracker Annual Report’ (yes, there’s such a thing!) which revealed the number of Ontario outages increased by 275 per cent from just 2012 to 2015.
It ended with a story of Lake Talon residents (just outside North Bay) who experienced a 25-day power outage, yet were still billed the Delivery Charge. Are these the “misleading” comments Glenn is referring to?
That’s it – four sets of independent facts – all called misleading by our Energy minister. Now let’s direct our attention to the falsehoods Glenn went on to add in his letter to the editor.
He claims the government rebuilt the electricity system, and that’s what caused your electricity bills to skyrocket. While the government may indeed have spent billions in transmission lines, they weren’t to repair the system; they were to transmit power from wind turbines spread far and wide, all across Ontario.
Glenn’s next claim, referring to our electricity rates, is that “our province is actually one of the lowest.” Seriously, minister? You have an obligation to be truthful to your constituents. Ontario has amongst the highest all-in electricity rates in North America. Instead of continuing to deny this, you would be better off doing something about it.
Several times throughout his letter, Glenn asked “what would the PCs do?” Let me remind him that PC Leader Patrick Brown has offered three solutions he continues to ignore. Stop the sale of Hydro One. The FAO told us this will bring the people short-term gain, but long-term financial pain. Stop signing contracts for power we don’t need. The government will tell you they “suspended” the long-range contracts, but they continue to sign deals for unneeded power today.
And rein in executive pay. Why do we pay the Hydro CEO $4 million, when the other province’s hydro CEOs earn ten times less? These are immediate solutions a PC Party would bring to the table.
He closes his letter by taking me to task for stating that our electricity system has become unreliable. He adds, “Today, we have a system that is one of the most reliable in North America.”
Ahh, Glenn … remember that Blackout Tracker? They stated “Ontario ranked the highest of all provinces for the number of reported outages.” These are facts, minister, not your aspirational goals. Not misleading comments. Just facts.
Something it appears you know nothing about.
Victor Fedeli
Nipissing MPP and PC Finance Critic