In the 1990s and into the 2000s, Ontario was a low-electricity-cost jurisdiction. This was a competitive advantage for the province, helping attract business and foster economic growth. Of course, in recent years, due largely to the Green Energy Act and its inefficiencies, Ontario electricity prices have soared, hurting industrial competitiveness, especially in the manufacturing sector where electricity is a major cost.
The results have been devastating.
h/t Bob H.
And this comes as news or a surprise to who exactly!!!!!
Or to put it more bluntly “No Sh*t, Sherlock!”
Next up, water is wet…..
And people think Bob Rae screwed Ontario. The devastation caused by McGuinty and Wynne out-does Rae exponentially. So what’s their secret? Keep the unions happy. Pay them highly and often. There are enough public employees in Ontario to keep Liberals in power regardless of how much they screw up the energy portfolio. Right now 12,000 Community College instructors are holding 500,000 students hostage despite a generous contract offer. Wynne and her Ministers have said nothing and are doing nothing to get them back to work. Wynne knows 12,000 union employees will vote, 500,000 college students…not so much. Public job growth leads all other sectors in Ontario. Private businesses are heading for the exits. Mad-with-power Liberals are too stupid to know this is unsustainable. Ontario is screwed for decades.
Steve E – yes! And that little exclamation point will be just about the last bit of ‘hurrah’ I can muster. I’ve been railing against the stupidity for well over three decades and I’m getting old and tired. I’ve done all I can to impress upon my close friends and family that we are headed in the wrong direction but even my own parents think I’m some kind of radical, alt-right nutjob (not that they know what alt-anything actually means).
I’ll keep plugging but I can’t see a way out. The only hope I have it that sometime in the future, after I croak, someone will say “damn! He was right”. Other than that and a vote, I got nuthin’.
The wicked witch of the east got caught burying the 4 billion $ cost of subsidizing consumer hydro rates so the real cost does not cause hydro users to hang her.
I say the real cost of Liberal bungled energy can’t be calculated until all the lost jobs, deindustrialization and energy bankruptcy hits home in a couple years time but and hang her anyway just for satisfaction as the province enters insolvency and economic winter.
File under: Elections Have Consequences
I predict that Wynne will win another election.The province has become so corrupt and is controlled by public sector unions.In fact I hope they get another five years of this it looks good on em.
The enviro fascists shut down Canada’s two export industries energy and manufacturing. The future’s going to be grim.
While I can’t disagree with what you said, Mrs Minuteman is a part time college teacher in a continuing education course. Her pay has not changed since she started in 1999, but the tuition fee on the course she teaches has more than doubled. I don’t know where the money is going, but she isn’t sharing in the riches. It probably goes to pay the schools ever increasing property tax and electricity bill.
Ask Mrs. Minuteman about the non-teaching jobs in the continuing indoctrination industry.
This is one of the biggest scams in history, second only to the CAGW scam that spawned it. In order to avoid showing a deficit, they are burying the debt resulting from the rate subsidy in a hole within OPG. Obviously this accumulating debt will end up on everyone’s bill later, with interest, and at a higher rate of interest than the province would be paying if it was added to the deficit now. It’s insane on so many levels. It should be the only news topic discussed in Ontario politics from now to the election. Instead we’re going to hear how Brown once voted against gay marriage.
Mr. Minuteman, the majority of the money that goes toward education, goes toward salaries. A second expense is pensions.
Spending per pupil has exceeded $12,000 per year. For a family of 4 you will need $24,000 of taxes to pay for your children’s education. Private schools start at $15,000 per year.
When you add health care and education together, the average Ontario tax payer needs make about $90,000 per year just to pay their taxes.
Education is funded 1/3 from municipal taxes and 2/3 from provincial and federal grants.
Despite what many people think, spending on education has increased uninterrupted year over year since at least 2001. From 2001 to 2012 education spending increased by over 50% (see link, Fig 1).
Spending on education is a runaway train.
Steve E was spot on.
https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/education-spending-in-canada-whats-actually-happening.pdf
Currently teachers only pay for $1 out of every $6 they take in pension. The rest is made up by other teachers, investment returns and taxpayers. If every Canadian took $6 for every $1 they paid toward their pension, we would be bankrupt. Teacher’s pensions are an unfair “tax loophole” in our tax system.
Back in the 90s I worked for a major mining company that generated its own electricity (some of it anyway). This company wasn’t known for its efficiency and one colleague quipped that the company needed massive increases in electricity rates to modernize.
That company has since shut down its generation plants and shipped its copper refining (electricity intensive) overseas. It is much more efficient today than it was in the 90s (and also has many less employees).
The same colleague quipped that if the government ever increased electricity prices dramatically it wouldn’t hurt the big inefficient mining companies (that had the room to become more efficient), but it would hurt the highly efficient manufacturers that had already minimized electricity use. They would have to move overseas or close their doors.
This year my electricity bill has dropped a mysterious 20%. As Greg explains, the Ontario government is subsidizing electricity rates for 5 years and keeping the cost off the books. The government also sold part of Hydro One taking even more debt off its books. This allows the government to borrow more.
Imagine borrowing so much that you can’t even pay the interest charges at a 2-3% interest rate.
“Imagine borrowing so much that you can’t even pay the interest charges at a 2-3% interest rate.”
Governments at every level borrow with utter abandon. Now, if you or I tried to do this with our own banks, we’d be laughed off the premises by the manager and the loan officer.
And therein lies the rub: what incentive is there for any individual Canadian to try to be fiscally responsible if government singularly refuses to be so?
Is there anything more hollow than government fretting over the personal debt levels of Canadians?
I recall an old conversation with my brother in law who was a public school principal. Another brother in law who is also not on the education payroll was jabbing him about the generous teachers pension plans. The principals come back was that it was such a challenge for teachers to come up with 10% of their salary to match the 10% the government was putting in. WE laughed of course about his hardship in only getting a 100% return on his investment plus whatever gains the fund made. (I’m sure they made some money from ownership of the Leafs, even though they were losing games consistently)
JJM, I just spent 2 weeks lying on the beach in Aruba. The island is full of Venezuelans.
I learned there are 2 kinds of Venezuelans, those who eat in the restaurants and those who serve in the restaurants.
The trick in Canada is, when the bills come due, make sure you can afford to eat in the restaurants. In other words, don’t rely on the government and don’t get sick.
“deindustrialization and energy bankruptcy hits home in a couple years time but and hang her anyway just for satisfaction as the province enters insolvency and economic winter.”
Was this not Maurice Strong’s dream all along, to deindustrialize the west? In Ontario it is just going according to plan.
It’s been their goal since their hero Karl Marx published his first book. Al Gore’s movie is based on it I believe.
“The results have been devastating.”
The results have been OBVIOUS. All you have to do is drive around and you can see shuttered factories up and down industrial sections of every town. I see an awful lot of wood piles here in the country too.
The problem, of course, is that the morons of Ontario think this is -progress.- Shut down those smelly old factories they say. Build a beautiful park where one stood the odious capitalist sweatshop where the Patriarchy ruled. Windmills are Green and the power from them is free! It comes from Nature, you know.
We lost that particular battle in the 1970’s, my friends. Now the battle has moved on to freedom of expression, and the same people who brought you the windmills are determined to see that you do not have any. You are meant to be serfs.
So now, there is only one political issue for anyone in Ontario. Taxes.
*
“bill elder says… The wicked witch of the east
got caught burying the 4 billion $ cost…”
but will anything be done about it?
says ontario’s auditor general…
“This is wrong. There’s still time to fix it.”
*
That’s a lot of economic pain for workers in those industries. I suspect that it has had negligible affects on global emissions decreases since those companies just relocated and resumed CO2 emissions in their new location. The worst part, IMO, is that Ontario already had one off the cleanest electricity systems. Its two main generation sources made up somewhere near 85% of its output (installed capacity is meaningless, only actual yearly production and capacity factor matter).
Ontario hydro could have simply phased out the coal plants as they reached old age and replaced them with natgas which has 50% lower CO2 emissions. It would have saved billions in unnecessary subsidies, kept electricity rates stable, reduced job losses and prevented the battle with rural landowners over wind farm installations. Instead Ontario has become a cautionary tale.
Note: did the Fraser report include USD/CAD $ fluctuations because that also impacts heavy industry profitability?
…Its two main generation sources, nuclear and hydro, made up somewhere near 85% of its output
Exactly. Ont taxpayers were mislead by an incredibly incompetent doctrinaire regime who went along with the “renewable” bandwagon. All they needed to do was declare nuclear as a “Renewable”, or simply make up their own “greenable” definition. Ont could have emphasized over 85% of electricity generated from green, clean efficient reliable sources and saved untold $ B of wasted expenditures. This figure would be the envy of any other industrial competitor if it was promoted. But, the Green fanatics don’t like, aren’t comfortable with “nuclear”.
And the Billions wasted would have provided state of the art gas plants for the 3rd leg of the Supply table. Industrial wind plants are the answer to exactly what Ont problem?
When I’m in a generous mood I assume Ontario’s politicians were gullible and naive. At my most cynical I suspect they had ulterior motives and used green energy legislation for personal benefit. Either way, it was a horrible policy and I’m somewhat shocked that Ontario voters have been so patient and forgiving.
Ontario electricity was well on the way to being uncompetitive before the 2000s. Think Darlingford. Think expensive re-furbishing of the other nukes. So there was already a challenge to keeping prices low for manufacturers. However, clearly the challenge was not enough for the Ontario Liberal government of McGuinty and then Wynne. First we had the premature retirement of coal plants. Then we had the “Green Energy Act”. Price increases accelerated throughout the 2000s and 2010s and now we have the chickens coming home to roost; manufacturing closures and massive job losses. Of course taxation to pay for increasing public sector perks didn’t help either. Remember; there was also once a time not too many decades ago when Ontario had a reasonably competitive tax regime.
The anti-industrial revolution started fifty years ago with the first wave of environmental hysteria. Reliance on the resource sectors (high wages and positive taxes) and low energy cost (key to manufacturing competitiveness) along with older populations who had lived through hard times and war temporarily repelled the insanity of these first few waves except in academia where it has continued to marinate. Actual pollution was reduced despite the hysteria. We now have generations of people who only know the revolution (theology actually), public “service” or low wage service sector jobs (paying less in taxes than received in benefits) and have never experienced hard times and vote accordingly. Think Jerry Butts and his idiot puppet PM. Ontario leads and the same suicidal demographic follows elsewhere. The state and its war on freedom and prosperity is winning. The road to serfdom is now just a downhill coast. Brief interludes of conservative governance touches the brakes once in a while but that’s all. The fool’s paradise otherwise known as Canada led by a degenerate political class populated by rabid consumers of “free” stuff is voting itself into ruin.
Sadly, everything anyone says here is irrelevant. As long as the unions are too powerful, Wynne will always occupy office.
In the early 1990s, I was offered an engineering position at a nuclear power station near Toronto. I gave it some consideration and turned it down because the job I had at the time was more in line with my career objectives.
A few weeks later, the Rae NDP was voted into office and Ontario Hydro’s nukes were among its targets. I guess I dodged a bullet there, didn’t I?
the union chorus has been, is and always be ‘me me me me me’.
at the turn of the last century, unions created a ripple effect, benefitting many not even in a union, riasing std of living for a couple generations.
now they are like a parasite bigger than the host. centred around public ‘service’.
me brudder the retired plumber always ‘turned the hose on’ any union types looking for a job in his company, knowing full well they would turn on him over even the slightest ‘infraction’ like occasional overtime in the interests of the CUSTOMERS who also have things like a business to run.
‘me me me me me’.
“We lost that particular battle in the 1970’s, my friends. Now the battle has moved on to freedom of expression, and the same people who brought you the windmills are determined to see that you do not have any. You are meant to be serfs.”
Exactly, and the vast majority of the people do not even realize that this battle is going on. Jordan Peterson certainly does.
“And people think Bob Rae screwed Ontario.”
Apparently the voters of the Toronto Centre riding who elected Rae to Parliament as a Liberal MP disagreed.
Rae stepped down in July 2013 to allow Chrystia Freeland to obtain his seat.
The Liberals, both provincially and federally, have moved so far Left that the only way the NDP could possibly have a different platform is to go full-on Communist.
Al Gore probably never heard of Maurice/Mo Strong but their ideas certainly would have the same end result.
Gore should go down in history as the crackpot of the century but we know that will take a generation of school children to be deprogrammed from the brainwashing.
Also see this link from Watts up regarding Minnesota
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/10/18/way-to-go-greenies/
“Public job growth leads all other sectors in Ontario. Private businesses are heading for the exits. Mad-with-power Liberals are too stupid to know this is unsustainable.” Steve E
The trend to AI will find a Home in replacing the Civil Service… The most expensive maintenance costs in Canada are the ideal targets for Robots….The elimination of Civil Service repetitive tasks will cure the money drain…
Just have to use all the Civil service Pension Money to pay off the CONTRACTORS.. Some big money involved with backup power systems not accounted for in the cost of Windmills (Pickens) It is the civil service that has pushed this insanity…They pay…
I’m fairly certain Gore had heard of Strong.
Strong was called to testify before the U.S. Senate on the UN Oil-for-Food scandal after which he promptly left to permanently live in Communist China.
Strong was a member of the Board of Directors of the Chicago Climate Exchange.(CO2 Credits Scam)
Strong owned a ranch in Montana which is situated on the largest natural aquifer in the entire United States.
Strong was the Secretary General of the 1992 UN Conference on the environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro where the unveiling of Agenda 21 took place.
money quote 1/2 down page:
Q: Can you tell me anything about Al Gore and the Earth Summit?
Strong: “Yes, indeed. He was first of all very supportive of the movement within the United Nations to actually hold the conference…. The date of the actual conference was in June 1992…. But the conference was actually decided by the General Assembly, given a lengthy preparatory period, in 1969.
Gore was very active in the U.S. political movement to endorse the conference and to get it approved by the United Nations. And, subsequently, he was extremely active in helping to shape its agenda and helping to assure that it got the attention that it did.”
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/1999/2605maurice_strong.html
some additional reading:
http://www.unitypublishing.com/Government/Maurice%20Strong.htm
Expensive electricity generated by alternative sources is already costing some their jobs and is forcing others into energy poverty. So called green energy is truly a crime against humanity.
until the people have to take everything every politician has in order to eat, Canadians will continue allowing such stupidity because we are stupid.