the government, almost entirely under mcguinty, did a very good job in transitioning the source of electricity, and for this they should be applauded.

but, they are approaching it with the wrong economic perspective. and, the more they deregulate, the worse this gets.

consider chiarelli's statement. "we needed to attract investment.". that's absurd. they could have created a revenue stream if they put the money down.

the ontario liberals are not the federal liberals. they don't have the same economic competency level.

the red tories actually had this right, but they're long gone. and, so, i really hope that the ndp comes out with a comprehensive plan to retake state control of the entire energy sector, from generation to transmission.

that is the only way that prices will ever come down.

yeah. the old ontario conservatives used to believe that electricity generation ought to be a publicly owned resource. and, this is actually a classical liberal position, as well. the current crops of ontario liberals and conservatives are both taking a very radical hayekian or rothbardian (dare i suggest randian) position on this that is simply not consistent with their ideological underpinnings.

the only hope on this file is the ndp. and, i really hope they take a strong initiative on a bold position. it's actually a guaranteed election win for them, if they can pull together the right vision.

i may even go so far as to suggest it's the only issue on the horizon in ontario that has any chance of leading to a change of government. and, i'd follow that up with the suggestion that it's important enough that it should happen.

we have excess capacity, and that is a good thing. if we want to seriously reduce emissions, we're going to need it. but, we shouldn't be punishing anybody for it or pushing for conservation schemes. we should be taking control of it and providing incentives to transition towards it.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontarians-paid-37-billion-above-market-price-for-electricity-over-eight-years-ag/article27560753/

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Guest9
"Ontarians have paid $37-billion more than market price for electricity over eight years and will pay another $133-billion extra by 2032 as a result of haphazard planning and political meddling, a report from the Auditor-General says."

That is a completely misleading statement by the G&M and the Author of this article. The AG report does not say that at all. It does not say that the $37 bn and $133 bn excess payments are due to haphazard planning and political meddling. The AG report only says that those are its estimates of the Global Adjustments paid in the electrical system. Clearly, the Author has very little knowledge of how the electrical system works in Ontario and how to interpret the AG report. Global Adjustments are an important and necessary part of the electricity system and market in Ontario and they are not a waste of money for taxpayers or ratepayers. They do not come about because of mismanagement and politics. Now if the Author and the G&M want to debate whether Ontario's electric system should have a Global Adjustments system then that is a completely different topic and something that we can be debated. This is a completely misleading article and very poor interpretation of the AG report.

deathtokoalas
the global adjustment was actually initially meant as a rebate, but the suppliers figured out that was bad pr and spun the situation around. the "market price" is an essentially meaningless number, because it's kept artificially low to prevent those rebates from coming off as bad pr.

we can't get ahead on this unless we take control out of the hand of private producers and put it back in the hands of the people.

it creates this situation where people think if you "took the government out of the way" they'd be paying three cents per kwh, or whatever it's at. which is ridiculous. everybody would shut down. if you "took the government out of the way", the per hour price would simply rise to what you're already paying - and perhaps a little more, as the oeb does have some regulatory power.