Ontario’s energy management is a mess

Re Agreement with Quebec won’t reduce

hydro bills, Oct. 22 It’s hardly a surprise that most Ontarians think there is something rotten in the state of Ontario’s energy management. Last Friday’s announcement that Ontario inked a seven-year deal to import electricity from Quebec says it all.

Premier Kathleen Wynne says this will reduce the carbon footprint. That is so laughable it’s beyond the pale. Any electricity imported from Quebec is certainly not clean and green; it will come most likely from Quebec’s James Bay Project, an ecological disaster that did great harm to the environment.

But why do we need to import electricity? Wynne recently suspended renewable energy projects worth $3.8 billion because she claimed we had a surplus of energy. What gives? This is mindboggling. Let’s face it, the management of Ontario’s energy supply is in shambles. The Green Energy Act that helped propel four election wins for the Liberals now seems like a distant memory. Ontario used to be an energy powerhouse; now it’s a worldwide poster child for how-not-to-do-things when it comes to converting to renewables. Obviously it’s not all the government’s fault as silly and stupid NIMBYism comes into play, particularly when it comes to situations such as the Wolfe Island wind farm.

If Wynne and the Liberals want to have any legacy in office, they need to get back on the green-energy track, and ignore NIMBYism even when it comes with a political cost. Andrew van Velzen, Toronto