FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Oct. 26, 2016
Barrett questions minister
on farm hydro rates
QUEEN’S PARK – Haldimand-Norfolk MPP and Opposition Ag Critic Toby Barrett took the government to task during Question Period on the impact skyrocketing electricity rates are having on agriculture and agri-food business.
Barrett provided the follow-up question to his caucus colleague Julia Munro’s question on how high electricity rates were affecting a vegetable processing operation.
“We just heard about the pressure on the processing vegetable sector and, as the Ontario Chamber of Commerce reports, a 383 per cent increase in hydro bills on this government’s watch,” Barrett said during Question Period. “When will the Premier stop signing energy contracts we don’t need? The LRP II has been suspended, but the Minister of Energy has said himself that projects under an earlier program known as LRP I—that includes all the FIT programs—will still go forward.”
He pressed further, asking when the province will stop selling electricity at a loss with Ontario residents and businesses footing the bill.
“With business and residential customers paying the bill, when will the Premier stop selling surplus energy at a loss? When will the Premier restore basic economics—matching supply and demand, for example—and restore rational decision-making to Ontario’s electricity sector,” Barrett concluded.
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For more information, contact MPP Toby Barrett at 519-428-04446 or toby.barrett@pc.ola.org
YouTube video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O70-n96d_kw&feature=youtu.be
ONTARIO LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY
DRAFT HANSARD
Energy policies
Mrs. Julia Munro: Today, my question is to the Premier. Don Chapman and Jim Chapman are the owners of Lakeview Vegetable Processing. They are here today in the gallery to join us. They have made many efforts to reduce and conserve power. The nature of this vegetable processing work is both energy-intensive and weather-dependent. This year, their bill is set to exceed $1 million …
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(Mrs. Julia Munro)
… and weather-dependent. This year, their bill is set to exceed $1 million, up 67% since 2013. This hydro usage hasn’t differed much, but the bill sure has.
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This year they hired a paid hydro consultant. The consultant says that the best option for them is to actually use more hydro. Yes, more hydro—you heard that correctly. You see, by using more hydro, they have a chance to apply to a different class of hydro user. They expect that doing so might save them $100,000 a year.
Premier, my constituents—
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you. I stand, you sit, please.
Premier.
Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: Minister of Energy.
Hon. Glenn Thibeault: Thank you for bringing forward that question, because I think it’s very important for us to talk about what we did with the bill that passed last week. We’re actually lowering the threshold for many businesses that couldn’t qualify for the ICI program—
Interjections.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): ??I’m looking. ??Right, Jim?
Finish, please.
Hon. Glenn Thibeault: I’m very happy to be able to tell them that they actually need to contact their local utility to see if they do qualify for this, because we’ve lowered it from three megawatts to one megawatt. That’s over 1,000 other businesses across this province that can qualify for the ICI program. I know many greenhouse growers in the southwest of the province are very excited about this because they will now be able to qualify for this, and that savings is significant. It’s up to a third of their electricity bill that they will be able to qualify for by this change that we passed in this House last week.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary? The member from Haldimand–Norfolk.
Mr. Toby Barrett: Back to the Premier: We just heard about the pressure on the processing vegetable sector and, as the Ontario Chamber of Commerce reports, a 383% increase in hydro bills on this government’s watch.
When will the Premier stop signing energy contracts we don’t need? The LRP II has been suspended, but the Minister of Energy has said himself that projects under an earlier program known as LRP I—that includes all the FIT programs—will still go forward.
With business and residential customers paying the bill, when will the Premier stop selling surplus energy at a loss? When will the Premier restore basic economics—matching supply and demand, for example—and restore rational decision-making to Ontario’s electricity ??sector?
Interjections.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Be seated please. Thank you.
Mr. John Yakabuski: Oh, I’m sorry.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Oh, I know you are. Very sorry.
Minister.
Hon. Glenn Thibeault: I’m very pleased to rise and, of course, answer this question, because on this side of the House, we’re very proud of the work that the Minister of Agriculture is doing with all of our farmers right across the province, meeting the goal of the Premier to make sure that we have 120,000 more jobs in this sector. We’re doing that by making sure that we can work with them when it comes to energy—by the ICI program, for example. We can see the benefits that many of these businesses can get, especially in the agriculture sector, when they reduce their bills from the ICI program. Many small farms will also benefit from the 8% reduction that we’re going to see come January 1.
The one thing that I do have to comment about—and when he talked about rational, on this side of the House we’re very proud of making sure that we closed all coal-fired generation in this province. On that side of the House, the PC Party are very pro-coal. That’s the only way that they can talk about getting things back to the way they were. It’s unfortunate—
Interjections.
The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you.
New question.