Small modular reactor project begins at Darlington

Don’t blame us, blame them.

Some 1,638 days after first winning power — and after two majority election victories in 2018 and again on June 2 — Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives are still pointing the finger at the previous Liberal government.

Zapped by this week’s annual auditor general’s report that highlighted the cost of electricity subsidies that keep hydro prices artificially low, the Tories scrambled to shift responsibility to their predecessors.

“Clearly, what we’re dealing with is the hangover from the Liberal era, which drove electricity prices through the roof, sole-source contracts that were way over the market price that we’re still dealing with today,” Energy Minister Todd Smith said Friday.

Smith’s comments came at a campaign-style groundbreaking ceremony for a new small modular reactor (SMR) at Ontario Power Generation’s Darlington nuclear station, about 70 kilometres southwest of Peterborough.

Under the Tories, hydro subsidies have skyrocketed to $6.3 billion a year in an annual provincial budget of $198.6 billion.

“Since 2017, the Ontario government has expanded its electricity bill subsidy programs and introduced a number of new measures,” auditor general Bonnie Lysyk noted in her report released Wednesday.

“While these subsidy programs have lowered the electricity bills of customers of electricity (that is, ratepayers), they do not reduce the true cost of electricity or address the root causes of cost increases,” wrote Lysyk.

“The programs simply shift a portion of the costs from electricity bills to taxes so that, ultimately, the expense is still borne by all taxpayers,” she continued.

Former Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne unveiled a subsidy program five years ago to lower rates by an average of 25 per cent.

Lysyk pointed out the soaring Conservative subsidy is “more than double the $2.8 billion spent in 2017-18” under Wynne’s Grits.

“Without the subsidies from these programs, the monthly electricity bill of an average residential customer would have been as high as about $166 in 2021-22 based on our estimates, as compared to about $121 with these subsidies,” she wrote.

Mindful that voters’ anger over hydro rates was a key factor in ending an almost 15-year Liberal dynasty — under Wynne and former premier Dalton McGuinty — Ford’s Tories have no plans to wean Ontarians off subsidized electricity.

“We’re ensuring with the programs that we have in place under the guidance of our premier … that we have stable electricity prices and, as a matter of fact, well below the rate of inflation every year,” said Smith.

Still, interim NDP Leader Peter Tabuns pointed out Thursday that “hydro bills are already too high” and the Tories should be investing in “efficiency, conservation, renewable energy and storage” programs to help consumers.

Other than scrapping green programs that subsidized wind and solar projects, Ford has largely continued — and built upon — many of his predecessor’s electricity policies. Despite that, the premier couldn’t resist taking potshots at the Liberals.

“We need to make sure that Ontario’s power supply remains safe and reliable — all while keeping our carbon emissions low,” Ford said at Darlington, which accounts for 20 per cent of Ontario’s electricity generation.

“Previous governments didn’t do this, they didn’t invest in the future and everyone paid for their bad decisions. They let energy costs skyrocket,” he said.

Green Leader Mike Schreiner warned Ford is taking a gamble as “SMR technology is still largely unproven and more expensive than existing renewables.”

“It all contributes to an energy fiasco that began four years ago when Ford cancelled 750 renewable energy projects and efficiency programs that would have helped people save money by saving energy,” he said.

“Instead of learning from his mistakes, Ford continues to reject affordable clean energy options, including low-cost water power from Quebec.”

The premier countered nuclear power does not contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and said that once the Darlington SMR is built in 2028, it will generate enough electricity to power 300,000 homes.

“SMRs are a massive leap forward and a major development for the future of nuclear energy.”