the electricity issue in ontario is indeed bad.

i've been over this. but to be as terse as possible: we used to have a monopoly on generation. but, we switched to a private/public mix. and, what we did was guarantee private producers a revenue stream, to ensure the system had sufficient generation.

there's a lot of what ifs.

1) had we just built this generation ourselves, instead of relying on private industry, we wouldn't have this problem. but, we'd have more debt. in fact, this works out to a shifting of manageable debt to unmanageable rates. most people will argue it would have been better to keep the system entirely state-run - but that would have meant the government taking on debt. and, conservatives would of course not like that.

2) but, if we had met the demand that was projected, we wouldn't have this problem, either. very specifically: if we had shifted to electric vehicles, we wouldn't have this problem. that was the precise reason that the province went out of it's way to ensure such a high capacity. it projected a nightmare in demand for electrical vehicles, which it saw as inevitable, and signed what today look like absurd contracts. if demand had risen as projected, these contracts would not look so crazy; rather, the architects would be being praised for their foresight.

3) had the government realized the problem earlier, and taken the steps to eat the error rather than pass it on to consumers, we wouldn't have this problem. there are several approaches. instead of passing these fees on to consumers, they could pay it and add it to the debt. they could buy the contracts out. or even refuse to honour them. or, they could go back to the drawing board and nationalize.

however, the idea that market liberalization would have prevented or will resolve this problem is incorrect. when you remove price controls, the prices always go up. in this particular case, taking away the energy board would almost certainly raise prices across the board to the level of the contracts. the energy board is what is keeping the prices down. i know that this is counter-intuitive. but it's not the board that sets the fees; the fees are determined by subtracting actual demand from the guaranteed payouts. in fact, the lower the board sets the rate, the higher the fees are going to be; the higher the board sets the rate, the lower the fees are going to be.

we're just not anywhere close to projected demand...

so, there is somewhat of a cautionary tale in centralized planning, here, it's just not what the right is throwing around. the lesson is that if you're going to plan your economy deep into the future, you need to ensure that you do not rely on private interests. centralized planning has to be public sector. otherwise, externalities and profit motives will invariably fuck everything up.

but what is absolutely beyond any debate is that this is purely a provincial issue. and, the media that is attempting to tie it to the federal government is dishonest.