Media Release for August 25, 2007

NDP’s Fair Hydro Rates Plan would deliver green jobs and clean power – Stairs

NDP candidate Felicite Stairs says the NDP will reverse four years of McGuinty Liberal neglect of Ontario’s energy needs with a Fair Hydro Rates plan to sustain jobs and families. The NDP plan means that as of Jan. 1, 2008, major industrial and resource-based consumers such as sawmills and pulp mills will be eligible for a fair new industrial hydro rate.

Dalton McGuinty and the Ontario Liberals have done almost nothing to protect the province’s hydro supplies over the past four years, according to Stairs, the NDP provincial candidate in Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke in the October 10 election. The neglect will cost families dearly in years ahead, she insists.

“Workers in sectors like forestry have been hurt by a jobs crisis that has seen 175,000 manufacturing workers lose their jobs on McGuinty’s watch,” said Stairs. Under the NDP’s plan, “Hydro rates for these sectors would not exceed an all-in cost of $55 a megawatt hour, a substantial saving over McGuinty's job-killing rate of $65 a megawatt hour.”

Residential and small business ratepayers will be protected by the plan as well. That’s because it will rein in Ontario’s out-of-control hydro bureaucracy. “Hydro One and Ontario Power Generation have no business rewarding executives or reaping windfall profits, not when skyrocketing electricity rates are destroying jobs and hurting families,” said Stairs. Hydro One’s deposed CEO Tom Parkinson made more than the heads of BC Hydro, Manitoba Hydro and Hydro Quebec combined. Costs associated with operating Ontario’s electricity agencies, meanwhile, have soared more than 50 per cent since the Conservatives deregulated hydro. The four major agencies that succeeded Ontario Hydro racked up $3.4-billion in operation, maintenance and administration costs in 2005, $1.2-billion higher than in 1998. “New Democrats will make sure our public hydro system helps today’s working families, not fat-cat hydro executives,” Stairs said.

Stairs says the NDP also plans to set tough standards for energy efficiency in factories, offices, and household tools and appliances, as well as cleaning up existing inefficient buildings. “We need a more energy-efficient Ontario, to conserve as much power as possible before demand exceeds supply and we start having brown-outs, as well as regular black-outs.” Helping Ontarians conserve energy will also help lower working families’ hydro bills.

The NDP plan means aggressive action to reduce hydro consumption, a significant boost in clean renewable power like wind, solar and water power, and cutting duplication and waste within Ontario’s out-of-control hydro bureaucracies. It will create up to 158,000 good-paying jobs and give Ontario the electricity it needs.

The Liberals, according to Stairs, have gone in the opposite direction. “They cancelled the Energy Star tax rebate which promoted energy efficiency,” said Stairs. “The 40 billion dollars they want to spend on nuclear power would be better spent on conservation.”

To protect the environment while conserving energy, the NDP would concentrate on cutting greenhouse gases by nearly half over the next two decades, and getting rid of coal-fired plants entirely, accordingly to Stairs.

“Our plan means shifting Ontario towards a greener electricity supply mix, putting energy efficiency at the centre of electricity issues and establishing a solid foundation for reliable, affordable energy. That means giving the green light to energy efficiency, energy conservation and green power, and the red light to the Nanticoke coal plant by 2011 and new nuclear power,” she said.

“It’s time to stop the Liberal waste, and start protecting our families. They need efficient energy, good jobs and a decent environment as well,” Stairs said.

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