Tories zap energy contracts across southwestern Ontario

More than 200 southwestern Ontario projects, including one of the most controversial wind farms in Ontario, are among the death toll of the new Tory government’s mass cancellation of contracts with renewable energy producers.

The doomed projects, announced by Doug Ford’s government as it underlined its vow to cut electricity bills by 12 per cent, number 758 provincewide including proposed wind farms with highrise-sized turbines and several hydro-electric projects. Solar energy contracts, large and small, dominate the list of deals being scuttled.

Contracts to harness electricity from other sources, including by burning gas from London’s landfill, are also being unplugged. Sunpowered contracts being cancelled extend to centres across southwestern Ontario, including at the Woodstock hospital.

In the wider London region, home to the largest wind farms in the province and the most turbines, the hit list includes a project that’s been a lightning rod for rural anger about wind energy: Chicagobased Invenergy’s Strong Breeze wind farm project in Dutton Dunwich. In the area from KitchenerWaterloo to Windsor, and up the Bruce Peninsula, the contracts being cancelled total 218. They don’t include the contentious North Kent Wind project in Chatham-Kent.

Energy Minister Greg Rickford couldn’t be reached for comment during the weekend, but a Londonarea cabinet minister said the cancellations are a big step by the Progressive Conservative government to bring down electricity bills. Under the Liberals, Ontario plunged headlong into wind and solar energy contracts as it shut down its dirty coal-fired power plants, signing giant and smallscale power producers to lucrative long-term contracts driving up the cost of power. Municipalities were also stripped of their ability to control where projects were built, with dozens joining an “unwilling host” movement against them. The lucrative contracts were scaled back as more producers were signed on, but critics contend nixing the contracts will cost thousands of green jobs. Natural Resources and Forestry Minister Jeff Yurek, whose riding takes in the Strong Breeze site, said Ontario’s plunge into green energy has driven up the cost of power and cost the province tens of thousands of good-paying jobs. The Tories say the cancellations — the contracts represent a fraction of Ontario’s power, most of which comes from nuclear plants — will save ratepayers nearly $800 million.

The Canadian Wind Energy Association, an industry umbrella group, said wind energy is the “lowest-cost option” for new electricity in Ontario.

But an organization critical of wind farm development is applauding the government’s move. “This was the right decision,” said Jane Wilson, president of Wind Concerns Ontario. “There were significant environmental and health concerns inherent in each of these projects.” Soaring energy costs have been a huge issue in Ontario, with its auditor general reporting in late 2015 that consumers had paid $37 billion more than market price for electricity during the better part of a decade, partly because of the Liberals’ costly push into green energy and because the government ignored the advice of its own energy planners in favour of political decisions. The cancelled contracts total 443 megawatts of power. Ontario has about 35,000 megawatts of generating capacity, an official with the Independent Electricity System Operator said. The cancellations don’t include the most controversial ChathamKent project, the 34-turbine North Kent Wind Project developed by Korean industrial giant Samsung and U.S.-based Pattern Energy Group. Already operating, the project spawned the formation of Water Wells First, a citizens group that remains active over concerns that vibrations from the construction and operation of the wind turbines have damaged private water wells in the area.