On August 29, 2018 Premier Doug Ford and Minister of the Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines, Greg Rickford held a press conference concerning the cancellation of the previous government’s cap-and-trade program, after which Premier Ford, at a podium with a large sign “For the people”, accepted questions from the reporters present.
The first question was from Rob Ferguson, of the Toronto Star: “In terms of the Bala falls hydro-electric project, you promised during the leadership campaign to stop it, you called it a “big scam”, last week you announced a few things about the Muskoka watershed, but scrapping that hydro-electric plant was not in that. So why are you not keeping this promise.”
Response from Premier Ford: “To say the least its frustrating, to say the least, what Kathleen Wynne did on that deal up there. I went up there personally. I had endless consultation with a group from Bala, and their primary focus was on the Muskoka watershed. Our government is investing $5M dollars on the Muskoka watershed. So I think we’re coming to the table, and if we were to cancel it, it could range anywhere from $20M to $100M. But their number one concern after the consultation with the people up in Bala was the watershed. So we’re going to invest, with the community by the way, with consultation from the community, to make sure that we have a good watershed up in Muskoka.”
Rob Ferguson: “So just to follow-up. Did you not know there would be a cancellation cost when you made the promise.”
Premier Ford: “Well, as the election went on, what I understand, they were working overtime, 24/7, to move it forward even quicker than what we thought. And again, I consulted with the residents, we put a small group together, and they seemed to be pretty happy. I wish we could cancel it, the problem is, you leave a big hole in the ground, it would cost the taxpayers a absolute fortune. This was a massive mistake by the Liberals to even have this, and by the way, they did it with zero consultation up in Bala. At least we’re consulting with the people. And we’re stepping up to the table here, and we’re going to give them $5M dollars. And with conjunction, with the local community matching that amount, hopefully.”
Interestingly, in response to a subsequent question from another reporter, Minister Rickford stated: “… The costly forms of renewable energy projects were unsustainable, they weren’t projects that communities wanted, and they weren’t projects that were needed. Certainly not at this time and for the foreseeable future. So our plan moving forward, Mr. Phillips and I have been given direction, clear direction, from the Premier to come up with an exciting bold plan that strikes that careful balance between reaching the objectives of protecting the environment and keeping with objectives that are fair and reasonable and also providing a less expensive way for Ontario families to live, Ontario businesses to do business in Ontario, and Ontario industries to hire and create economic opportunity.”
This is all quite remarkable as the government’s apparent attempt at reneging is based on incorrect and incomplete information:
- The Premier claims to have consulted with the community, but they have not:
- SaveTheBalaFalls.com has been pursuing this issue for more than ten years, we are incorporated, have an e-mail address, have hundreds of fee-paying members, and have hundreds of articles posted on our web site. Yet the Premier’s office would not respond to our requests for meetings, and they certainly never contacted us.
- The community’s concerns are public safety and wasting $100M by over-paying the private developer for power that isn’t needed.
- The Premier claims cancelling the proposed project would cost “anywhere from $20M to $100M”, this is incorrect:
- Hydro-electric generating stations typically cost $5M per megawatt to construct. So the proposed generating station, which would have less than 5 MW of capacity, should cost about $25M to construct. Even if it costed $30M to cancel, the province would still save $70M on the cancellation, since the proponent would receive a subsidy of over $100M over the term of their contract.
- Even more interesting is that the government could stop this proposed project at no cost, and could even restructure Ontario’s power system to both save money and generate additional revenue to the government. We look forward to talking to the Premier’s office about this.
- Minister Rickford notes that Ontario has enough power for the foreseeable future (the Ministry’s planning extends out ten years). So the government agrees the power from this proposed generating station is not needed.