Category Archives: Ottawa

Nepean-Carleton Libertarian candidate statement

02 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by in Health, Ottawa, Renewable energy, Wind power

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We have already published the statements from candidates for the Ontario election from the Liberal, NDP, Ontario Progressive Conservative and Green parties; we contacted Libertarian Party candidate Coreen Corcoran, who provided us with the following, as relates to large-scale wind power generation in Ontario and in specific, the only project currently proposed for the Ottawa area, in North Gower-Richmond.

Ms Corcoran writes:

Ontario Libertarian point of view
We do not believe that any industry should be given preferential treatment by the government over another industry, to the extent that the government should be out of the subsidy business all together. There are no private companies willing to stick their necks out to fund and own the risk of running wind farms 100%. They are relying on government subsidies to create an industry that is not wanted or even viable at this point in time. We would stop risky energy programs and leave it to the market to test unproven technologies. If it could survive in a free-market, let it, but it is doubtful the current technology would have any support. If a free-market wouldn’t support it, why should the taxpayers of Ontario?

My personal point of view
I saw the documentary Windfall a couple of years ago, and after seeing that film, I knew that wind power in its current form wasn’t sustainable. The physical impacts on the people who live near the turbines, the many birds and bats that are killed by the blades, and the huge government grants required to sustain this industry are all reasons why we need to stop it in its tracks. Maybe someday there will be a way to harness wind power on a large scale, but giant turbines covering our landscape and taking people out of their homes is not the way to do it.

You have my support.

Thank You,
Coreen Corcoran

 

Email us at ottawawindconcerns@gmail.com or write to us at PO Box 3, North Gower K0A 2T0

Nepean-Carleton candidates statements

30 Friday May 2014

Posted by in Ottawa, Renewable energy, Wind power

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The Ottawa Citizen has a Riding Profile for Nepean-Carleton today, and senior writer Don Butler asked about proposed wind power projects, and opinions on “green” energy generally. Here are the responses.
Q: What is your position on the role green energy in Ontario’s power mix, including the creation of new wind farms in Nepean-Carleton?

LISA MACLEOD

Party: Progressive Conservative
Occupation: Current MPP for Nepean-Carleton

Green energy: MacLeod opposes the proposed wind turbine development in North Gower. “While I am not opposed to green energy, it is unsustainable, unaffordable, unreliable and, in many places, like our community, unwanted,” she says. A PC government would restore locally based decision-making about wind and solar projects and impose a moratorium on new industrial wind farms pending an independent health and environmental review. MacLeod points out that on any given day, wind and solar generate only one-to-three per cent of the province’s power supply. Nuclear power — which the PC’s would expand — accounts for more than half, supported by “cheap, affordable and green” water power and natural gas, she says.

JACK UPPAL
Party: Liberal
Occupation: Real estate agent

Green energy: Uppal says the Liberal government has modernized an electricity system that was “left in disarray” by the Mike Harris Conservatives. “We have ensured that Ontarians have the power they need, when they need it.” The Liberals have closed dirty coal generating plants and replaced them with clean energy such as wind and solar, Uppal says. By contrast, the PCs want to spend $15 billion on new nuclear power generation and cancel wind contracts — which could cost the province $20 billion in cancellation fees, he warns. In his response to the Citizen, Uppal didn’t say what his position is on the creation of new wind farms in the riding.

RIC DAGENAIS
Party: NDP
Occupation: Analyst with the Canadian Union of Public Employees

Green energy: Dagenais says the NDP supports renewable energy projects, but “will not force projects where communities are opposed and will ensure that communities are consulted.” The party would also ensure that contracts for small community-based energy projects aren’t automatically awarded to large corporations. As well, Dagenais says the party is committed to a full environmental assessment of all pipeline projects, would replace old buses with new efficient ones and would provide low-interest loans to property owners for energy-efficient retrofits, including the cost of solar panels.

GORDON KUBANEK
Party: Green
Occupation: High school teacher

Green energy: The Green party is “very supportive” of green energy generation that can be shown to be cost-effective and has the support of those who live near it, Kubanek says. Large wind turbines need to be a safe distance from people, which “excludes most regions of Nepean-Carleton,” he says. Even if all conditions are met, the provincial government should compensate homeowners near wind turbines if the value of their property declines, Kubanek says. One possible approach would be to reduce hydro rates by at least 50 per cent to compensate for any loss in home value, he says. “That would enable a market to be created for those homes and thus meet the needs of both the individual and the community.”

Read the full article here.

Contact us at ottawawindconcerns@gmail.com

“Liberals no saviour”: Ottawa Citizen report on debate

28 Wednesday May 2014

Posted by in Ottawa, Renewable energy

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Although not to be televised until Thursday, and then only for Rogers TV subscribers, the Ottawa Citizen carries a report on the debate in today’s edition, on page A 3.

Liberal candidate for Nepean-Carleton Jack Uppal said the Liberal government has “done very well over the last 10 years,” according to the report, by Don Butler.

PC incumbent Lisa MacLeod responded by saying that Ontario has the highest annual deficit and most accumulated debt of any province. Since the Liberals took office in 2003, the number of public sector workers has grown by 300,000: “Their plan is not workable. It’s not achievable.”

Ric Dagenais took issue with the Million Jobs Plan put forward by the PCs while Green Party candidate and Kars resident Gordon Kubanek said voters are tired of LIberal overspending but don’t like the Conservative plan to eliminate 100,000 jobs.

The candidates debated electricity bills and MacLeod blamed the Green Energy Act and the “bloated bureaucracies” at Hydro One and Ontario Power Generation.

Dagenais spoke on traffic congestion; Uppal said his party supports mass transit initiatives, which MacLeod added her party would “fight” to ensure Ottawa gets its fair share of funding for transit.

 

 

All candidates meetings/debates in Ottawa

27 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by in Ottawa, Renewable energy, Wind power

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With regret, we must announce that scheduling challenges prevent us from organizing an energy-themed all-candidates’ meeting in Nepean-Carleton riding (home to PC energy critic Lisa MacLeod).

Here are some all-candidates’ meetings scheduled for Ottawa:

May 29, 7-9pm, in Ottawa South at Hillcrest high school, 1900 Dauphin Rd
June 4, 7-9pm, Ottawa Vanier at Centre de services Guigues, 159 Murray St
June 5th, 7-9pm, in Ottawa West Nepean at F.J McDonald School, 2860                                          Ahearn Ave

However, Rogers TV is running several Ottawa-area riding debates…available to Rogers subscribers only.

Here are the TV debates scheduled:

May 27 Ottawa South 7 PM

May 28 Ottawa-Orleans 7 PM

May 28 Ottawa Centre 8 PM

May 29 Ottawa West-Nepean 8 PM

May 29 Nepean-Carleton 9 PM

May 29 Carleton-Mississippi Mills 10 PM

May 28 Ottawa-Vanier 9 PM

Information available at rogerstv.com

We do plan however to present statements on wind power from the candidates in Nepean-Carleton, where the only wind power project has been proposed for the Ottawa area.

Wind and solar power: the hidden costs

20 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by in Ottawa, Renewable energy, Wind power

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Wind power: not free

Wind power: not free

Here, from Ottawa-based energy-specialist economist Robert Lyman, a quick look at what many people don’t know (and aren’t getting told by the government or the wind power lobby) about the costs of generating power from wind and solar.

A must-read.

THE HIDDEN COSTS OF ONTARIO RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY GENERATION 

Ontario residents can be forgiven if they fail to understand the public debate during the current (2014) provincial election about the costs of different types of electricity generation and why these have caused electricity rates for consumers to rise so much over the past ten years. The complexity of the system makes it difficult to explain the costs associated with one source of supply, namely the renewable energy generation  (industrial wind turbines and solar power generators). In this note, I will nonetheless try to explain in layperson’s terms why these costs are significant.

Electricity supply in Ontario takes place within the framework of the policy and legislative framework established by the Ontario government, an important part of which is the Green Energy and Economy Act of 2009 (GEA). Historically, the goal of Ontario electricity policy was to keep electricity rates for consumers as low as possible consistent with the goal of maintaining adequate and reliable supply. Within the current framework, however, that is no longer the goal. The GEA seeks to stimulate investment in renewable energy projects (such as wind, solar, hydro, biomass and biogas) and to increase energy conservation.  To do this, it:

  • Changed the review process for renewable energy projects to reduce environmental assessment and hasten approvals
  • Created a Feed-in-Tariff that the Independent Electricity Systems Operator (IESO) must pay, guaranteeing the specific rates for energy generated from renewable sources (typically, the rates are fixed for the full term of the twenty year contracts, with inflation escalators)
  • Established the right to connect to the electricity grid for renewable energy projects and gave renewable energy source preferential access over other sources of generation
  • Implemented a “smart” grid to support the development of renewable energy projects
  • Eliminated local approval requirements that local governments previously could impose on renewable energy projects

The guaranteed rates paid under the FIT system are not negotiated based upon the actual costs of production. In fact, the actual costs of production are largely unknown. …

Read the full analysis here: THE HIDDEN COSTS OF ONTARIO RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY GENERATION

Ashton farmer sells everything; electricity bills too high

11 Sunday May 2014

Posted by in Ottawa, Renewable energy, Wind power

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Ashton farm sold when local profits couldn’t keep up with hydro bills

By Brandy Harrison, farmersforum.com

May, 2014

ASHTON — It’s a done deal: the store is empty, the equipment auctioned off, and the farm signed away. Ashton beef farmer Rick Hobbs has quit full-time farming and is putting at least some of the blame on soaring electricity costs.

“Our hydro was more than what we were bringing in. It came down to a choice: do we pay the hydro or do we pay the mortgage?” says Hobbs, who ditched commercial beef sales for an on-farm store stocked with beef, a bakery, and restaurant south of Ottawa in 2010.

Local beef sales shot up quickly but began to tail off about a year ago when he said he lost customers to cheaper grocery store prices. At the same time, he worried his wife, Chris, the primary cook and baker for the restaurant, was burning out.

He closed the store for good at the end of March and sold the farm late last month to a buyer from Richmond, who will wait until September to move in his heavy horses and construction equipment. The store, house, barn, outbuildings, four Cover-Alls, and 92 acres were originally on the market for $950,000 but Hobbs dropped the price to $799,000.

Soaring hydro rates just cemented the decision to sell, says Hobbs.

The power was cut off for the better part of a day at -33 C in late January when he was a day late paying the bill because of a snowstorm. The next monthly bill shot up by an extra $1,400. Hobbs says he didn’t get a satisfactory answer as to why.

Since word got out that electricity costs played a part in the sale, Hobbs says he has fielded 15 to 20 calls from people, including some farmers, in similar situations.

 

Read the full story here.

See related story, on opening of the Hobbs’ on-farm store, in 2011.

Letter: ask questions about Gunn’s Hill (and Prowind)

06 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by in Ottawa, Wind power

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Here is a letter to the Editor from the current edition of the Norwich Gazette. This community is the location of Prowind’s ONLY active wind power development.

Letters to the Editor

Norwich Gazette

May 5, 2014

The public should be asking questions about the Gunn’s Hill wind project, and asking about the organization called The Oxford Community Energy Co-operative.

If the “community” in the project area wanted a co-operative why wouldn’t they create their own? Why are Prowind Canada, Ontario Sustainability Services (OSS), “Friends of Wind” (presumably funded by Canadian Wind Energy Association) and IPC Energy trying to push it into the community? Doesn’t this appear more like a mechanism for the developer to apply for the “co-operative” adder from the Ontario Power Authority (to make more money for the developer) rather than a true community initiative?

What is IPC Energy’s interest in this project? Will the project be changing ownership? Why would the Oxford Community Energy Co-operative’s (OCEC) corporate office address have been registered as the IPC Energy address in Mississauga, with IPC’s president being a director of the OCEC?

While Prowind stated in its Renewable Energy application documents its plans to be a “long-term presence and neighbour”, it already tried unsuccessfully to sell the Gunn’s Hill project to Boralex in 2013. Given that Prowind Canada has still not begun operating any projects in Canada, and their staff has been dwindling in number each year, why would there be any assurance that Prowind will be involved long-term? At what point will the project ownership change?

Ask about the provider, Prowind.

Why does Prowind claim employment opportunities will be offered to Six Nations workers in one section of their REA documents, while stating preference will be given to local community residents in another?

Why did Prowind claim the Talbot Wind Farm near Ridgetown was a “well planned project” without researching the impact on residents? Why have they not admitted that residents have had significant adverse impacts in this “well planned project”, including having to vacate their homes or sleep in their basements?

Take a look at a website we’ve been observing – http://www.windontario.ca. You already know the Norwich Township council has declared themselves to be an “unwilling host”.

Do you truly believe the Gunn’s Hill project will benefit the environment? Ontario’s coal-fired generating stations have already been shut down and we are exporting surplus electricity at a loss to other jurisdictions on a regular basis, with manufacturing industries closing down in Ontario.

The public should be asking the hard questions.

Gerald and Carol Engberts. RR4 Woodstock

Prowind's Head Office in Hamilton until 2013
Prowind’s Head Office in Hamilton until 2013

 

Editor note: Prowind is the Germany-based company that has proposed a wind power development for North Gower-Richmond until the Feed In Tariff subsidy process was put on hold in 2013; a new procurement process is slated to begin in the summer of 2014.

No ‘safe hands’ here: 5 ways the Ontario Liberals are messing up the economy

28 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by in Ottawa, Renewable energy, Wind power

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Five ways the Ontario Liberals are messing with the province’s economy

Scott Stinson, National Post, April 28, 2014

Kathleen Wynne has spoken repeatedly in the past month about how her Liberals are the only party to be trusted with the fortunes of a province that is still unsteady on its economic feet.

Ontario, the Premier has said, needs her “safe hands” to guide it through its recovery, not those “reckless schemes” of the two parties in opposition.

Other Liberals have picked up the thread. In blasting the NDP for its demand of increased corporate tax rates, Transportation Minister Glen Murray last week said the province, “is emerging from the global recession. However, our recovery remains fragile.”

Add a couple of seafaring metaphors about troubled seas, and the comments were perfectly in line with what the federal Conservatives were touting in the 2011 election: now isn’t the time to mess about with our delicate economic recovery.

Except there is a key difference: the Ontario Liberals are furiously messing with the economy.

On Thursday, after the federal Tories announced plans to tinker with public pensions, Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa all but rolled his eyes at the proposal and insisted that the province will forge ahead with an Ontario-only enhancement to the Canada Pension Plan. It is fair to say a debate remains over whether a CPP top up is needed, and if so whether a mandatory plan as envisioned for Ontario is the solution. But there is little such debate in the business community.

“It’s going to have a devastating impact,” Nicole Troster, senior policy analyst with the Canadian Federation of Business, said in an interview. Among the key concerns for the CFIB, Ms. Troster said, is that mandatory pension contributions are essentially a profit-insensitive tax. Even struggling businesses would be hit with a new, additional cost. Other business groups have lined up to express concern over the Liberal proposal: the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, the Certified General Accountants of Ontario, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, among others.

Read the full story here and see the Liberal Party’s new ad.

Excerpt Re: hydro rates:

Hydro rates

The Liberals announced this week that they plan to remove the Debt Retirement Charge from the bills of residential electricity users in 2016. It will remain on those of businesses for another two years after that. Further, while the government is expanding plans to allow companies to switch to time-of-use billing, many of them couldn’t take advantage of the option, even if they were large enough to qualify.

“A lot of our members,” Ms. Troster of the CFIB says, “don’t have a way to switch their energy usage.” Businesses are often neither open nor staffed during non-peak hours, when energy is cheapest. And with hydro rates in Ontario having doubled since 2008, and scheduled to rise further, electricity is “the most important cost concern for our members over the last two years,” she says.

Email us at ottawawindconcerns@gmail.com

 

Parker Gallant: the Liberal shell game on hydro bills

28 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by in Ottawa, Renewable energy, Wind power

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The Liberals’ promise of ‘significant relief’ on power bills: a closer look

The April 2014 Liberal event calendar has had a minimum of an event a day, including the Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli’s delivering a message on how the government plans to help small and medium Ontario business deal with electricity bills. The event was held at Giant Tiger’s HO in Ottawa.

Energy

Bob Chiarelli and friends: did they look at the numbers, really?

These daily announcements are leading up to the budget presentation on May 1st which is widely expected to trigger an election.

Not once in the 27-minute podcast did the Minister mention “Timmies” coffee in the context of either what it would cost ratepayers or how much it would reduce hydro bills for those small and medium sized companies. But what he did was to spin the bad news electricity story: first they rob Peter and Paul to pay wind and solar developers, and when Paul becomes vocal you rob more from Peter to pay Paul. As soon as Peter laments, you tell him you have a plan to give him a break and you simply stick Paul with higher rates. Then, while you are telling Peter he will soon get a break, you rob the company that employs him so they can no longer afford to hire Paul. Shortly after that the company laments that they may have to lay Peter off so you rob even more from Peter and Paul, so that they will be able to keep Peter on staff and may even be able to afford to hire Paul.

Should you decide to watch Chiarelli’s podcast you’ll see he doesn’t make it quite that simple. Instead, he talks about “pillars,” points and electricity acronyms like “IEI” (Industrial Electricity Incentive) or “ICI” (Industrial Conservation Initiative) programs. Like the other promises of prosperity coming daily from the government, the benefits are all in the future. Only one of his suggestions came with a specified time (2015). That was one that will instruct your local distribution company (LDC) to become a lending institution! They will be told to provide financing for “up-front capital costs” associated with “conservation programs.” Needless to say this and the other programs will be financed by other ratepayers via the Global Adjustment (GA).

The day before, the announcement was about ending the Debt Retirement Charge (DRC) at the end of 2015, and was clearly aimed at residential ratepayers (people who vote). Premier Wynne said it would bring “significant rate relief.” The DRC will continue to be collected until 2018 from those to whom Minister Chiarelli promised relief too, from his perch at Giant Tiger. By the end of December 2015 we will have paid $15.5 billion to retire the original $7.8 billion of “Residual Stranded Debt” but they want more, so they will take about $1 billion from most commercial and industrial clients before they will finally declare it paid—evidence of the Liberal trick of robbing Peter to pay Paul!

“Significant relief”?

Let’s look at Wynne’s “significant rate relief” claim. Just one year ago the Ontario Energy Board announced a rate increase that cost the “average” ratepayer $3.63 a month or $44 annually, and followed that with another increase in November raising rates by $4.00 a month or $48 annually. The more recent increase of April 14, 2014 saw another increase of $2.83 a month or $34 annually, and those announcements didn’t include rate increases for the “delivery” or “regulatory” lines on our bills, which also increased. So, in just one year the electricity rates jumped $126 annually and Wynne’s announced rate relief won’t happen until the end of 2015. That’s the year the Ontario Clean Energy Benefit (OCEB) ends. The OECB reduces the average bill by $13.30 per month or $160 annually. The “average” bill (electricity only) at the start of 2016 will be $286 higher on an annual basis than it was as of April 30, 2013. Adding the HST brings the increase to $323.
We should also expect additional increases from the OEB’s scheduled rate setting on December 1, 2014, May 1, 2015 and December 1, 2015; those add a minimum of $100/120 to our electricity line.

In other words, the average bill will have jumped by approximately $425/$450 by which time Wynne’s “significant rate relief” will become insignificant. Just as the annual DRC charge of $67 falls away, another scheduled charge from the Wednesday announcement (aimed at reducing energy poverty) of $11 will be added, so we may see a measly $56 decrease at that time.

25% increase in two years
The “average” ratepayer will have experienced an increase of over 25% in electricity prices in slightly more than 2 years by the time the December 31, 2015 date arrives. At that time our electricity costs will be charged out at over 21 cents per kilowatt (kWh). That only gets worse as more contracted wind and solar enter the grid. The price will rise further should OPG prove successful in their “significant” rate increase request now before the OEB. Add in increases expected in the “delivery” and “regulatory” lines, tack on HST and all-in costs will be in the neighbourhood of 30 cents a kWh! That average $133 monthly bill will suddenly be $240 and Ontario residents will be challenging Germany and Denmark for the privilege of having the most expensive rates in the industrialized world.

It seems the Liberal Ontario government has apparently abandoned the “Chiarelli” math (units are based on the price of a Tim Horton’s coffee) and have now moved on to a shell game. They tell us their management of the energy portfolio is constantly saving us money—you just have to look for the pea under the right shill, oops, I meant shell!

©Parker Gallant,
April 26, 2014

The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent Wind Concerns Ontario policy.

Hydro bill protest attracts hundreds to Chiarelli’s office

05 Saturday Apr 2014

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Megan Dalaire, Ottawa Citizen April 4, 2014

Ottawa — Hundreds of people affected by Ontario’s rising energy prices gathered Friday in a protest against the province’s Long-Term Energy Plan outside of MPP Bob Chiarelli’s office on Carling Avenue.

The energy plan was announced by Chiarelli on Dec. 2 and is expected to save the province $16 billion on energy between 2013 and 2017, at a high cost to residential hydro customers, whose bills will rise by 42 per cent over next five years, 50 per cent over next 10 years, and 68 per cent over next 20 years. The cost of heating is an especially touchy subject to Ottawans, who have just experienced the city’s coldest winter in two decades, but the protesters Friday had their fellow Ontarians in mind as they rallied for the second time since December.

”Across the province people are hurting because of high gas prices,” said protest organizer Beth Trudeau. ”What we want to do is to give a voice to the people who don’t have a voice. The people who have to choose between heating and eating.”

Friday’s protest was part of a provincewide movement called Join the Fight Against Hydro Rates, which Trudeau said was originally started by two Dryden, Ont., women and now has thousands of supporters.

Complaints by protesters covered a range of issues, from hydro usage cost increases, high distribution rates, HST and surcharges, to the dubious reputation of smart meters installed by Hydro One to replace analog meters. Passing motorists honked their horns and…

Read the full story here.

Blog editor note: thanks to those of our members who attended the protest, and handed out the McGuinty FITy dollar bills, which details the reasons behind Ontario’s electricity bill increases. (They’re not what the government is telling you.)