As per our post on Monday, a panel consisting of a local business representative, a social assistance agency, and a farm owner were guests on CBC’s Ottawa Morning show, to discuss the impact of rising electricity bills. They all said that time-of-use had affected them significantly, and the increase in electricity rates was just going to be worse. The farm owner, Peter Ruiter of Black Rapids Farm, said his cows need to be milked at the appropriate times every day, and there was no time-of-use flexibility for his operation. He invited Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli to come and see for himself.

Mr Chiarelli was interviewed on the show yesterday: his appearance was, in our view, a shocking demonstration of partisan politics but worse, one of complete ignorance of the power situation in Ontario. His claim that Ontario Power Generation made $7B for the taxpayers of Ontario is false, for example. And his claim that power bill increases are just a “blip” is insulting. While interviewer Hallie Cotnam caught him out on that, there was no question as to why the province continues to approve multi-million-dollar deals with wind power developers, for power we don’t need.

The link to the entire interview is here.

The rumour is that Mr Chiarelli is going to retire and not run in the next provincial election. Given his performance in this all-important portfolio, we think that is a “smart” decision.