ELECTRICITY SUPPLY

Mr. Tim Hudak: My question is for the Premier. Premier, you have turned the Ontario Power Authority, the OPA, into the eHealth of the Ontario energy sector. While Ontario families get stuck with the bills, the Ontario Power Authority has ballooned from some 15 to 300 bureaucrats, and they can’t get the basic job done. They’ve not produced the long-term energy plan yet, despite five years on the job, but they seem to be more than happy to be the propaganda arm for your expensive energy experiments.

Premier, why is it that after five years, the OPA has yet to show itself up to the job but excels at expensive ad campaigns and spin for the McGuinty Liberals?

Hon. Dalton McGuinty: I just can’t share my honourable colleague’s negativity when it comes to the electricity circumstances in the province of Ontario. I think the people at the OPA have done quite a good job of helping to develop a long-term plan.

Again, my honourable colleague knows that in fact there is a long-term plan on the books. It’s 20 years long, and it requires that every three years, we revise that plan in keeping with the then projected outlook.

The good news in Ontario is that we in fact have a long-term plan. They did not have one. We’re investing heavily in new transmission and in new generation. There are costs associated with that. We understand that those costs have consequences for our families. There are a number of things that we have done with our families. We will continue to look for ways where we can work together with families to help them manage their electricity bills as they go up. But our single most important responsibility is to make sure the lights come on in the province of Ontario, and we will continue to do that.

The Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): Supplementary?

Mr. Tim Hudak: Premier, let me give you some facts: The OPA bureaucracy has grown by 464%. The number of six-figure salaries across your government, as a whole, has gone up 134%—shocking enough, but at the OPA, Premier, a 1,300% increase in bureaucrats making more than $100,000 a year. Despite the fact that the OPA has ballooned like this, you’ve spent some $80 million in contracts and consultants beyond that, but they still have yet to produce the Premier’s much-anticipated, forever-delayed energy plan.

Premier, why are families, who are stuck struggling with the bills, paying for your expensive energy experiments? What are they getting in return for the $732-a-year more they are paying because of your poor—

The Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): Thank you. Premier?

Hon. Dalton McGuinty: I want to remind my honourable colleague of the mess that he helped create when they were in government. One of the things that they did was they left to our children and grandchildren $19.4 billion in stranded hydro debt. Paying off that debt is a significant component of every Ontario hydro bill. Every single month, when Ontario families pay their bills, they have to pay something connected with the hydro debt. More than that, when they recklessly froze prices in the province of Ontario and passed that on to taxpayers, that cost Ontarians $900 million.

We’re not going there. We’re acting responsibly, building new generation, keeping the lights on and working with families to keep their costs down.

The Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): Final supplementary.

Mr. Tim Hudak: Let’s see, here, if we can pierce the Premier’s bubble and keep him abreast of what’s happening in the real world today. Ontario families are getting stuck with higher and higher hydro bills because of your out-of-control energy experiments. You have turned the Ontario Power Authority into the eHealth of the energy sector. Both have runaway spending, both have become a feeding frenzy for Liberal-friendly consultants, and the OPA is stacked with Liberal hacks and flacks. Just like with eHealth, friends of the McGuinty government are getting rich off the OPA while ordinary, hard-working families and seniors are getting stuck with the bill.

Premier, why didn’t you learn your lesson? How did you let the rot of eHealth creep into the energy sector with your eHealth-style Ontario Power Authority?

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Hon. Dalton McGuinty: So far today, my honourable colleague has not advanced anything which has a foundation in fact.

When we talk about some things that are going up, I think it’s important to understand that coal generation went up 127% on their watch. Carbon dioxide emissions went up 124% on their watch.

We have in place a plan to create 50,000 clean, green energy jobs. The first Ontario plant for Canadian Solar is in Guelph. It’s creating 500 new high-tech jobs in Guelph. Heliene Canada will be opening a plant in Sault Ste. Marie shortly; they will be opening a solar module manufacturing plant. The Siemens company recently announced they’re going to be building wind turbine plants as part of our Samsung deal; that’s 900 new jobs.

I ask my honourable colleague: Why is he standing against electricity reform in the province? Why won’t he join us and create those—

The Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): Thank you. New question.

via Legislative Assembly of Ontario | Debates & Proceedings | Debates (Hansard) | Official Records for 23 September 2010.