As referenced in this three-page article published in the July 10, 2015 Financial Post, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce has published a study entitled Empowering Ontario, Constraining Costs and Staying Competitive in the Electricity Market. The study notes that Ontario’s economy is being harmed as we have the highest electricity rates in North America, and the article notes this is “directly traceable to a decade of foolish policy decisions”.
One of those foolish policy decisions is the Ontario Liberal government’s Feed-In Tariff program and the report suggests an option is therefore to cancel FIT contracts, but dismisses this as the contracts signed are “unable to be renegotiated or cancelled—or even if viable, would have large legal repercussions for the province”. However, the Ontario government has two ways to cancel the Bala proponent’s FIT cotnract with no costs or claims for expenses:
- As noted in this article and this letter, as the proponent has reneged on fundamentally-important commitments they made in their proposal for which they were awarded the opportunity to pursue this work, the contract can be cancelled, with the proponent having no rights to claim costs or expenses, as they provided inaccurate and misleading information in their proposal.
- The proponent will not be able to be in commercial operation by the April 2018 deadline required by their FIT contract, so the contract can be cancelled.
Conclusion
This proposed project would make the most electricity when it is least needed, yet the government would be forced to pay subsidized and above-market rates for the power. This is the exact type of proposed project which Ontario can and should cancel, and this can be done without having to pay any costs or expenses the proponent may have incurred.
Furthermore, this proponent is out of control, has provided information for which they have demonstrated they are incompetent, are being abusive to the community, and the proposed project would cause drownings.
It is now time to cancel this mess.