How could the Ford Government actually meet its promise to reduce hydro bills? It could start by making every worker at the Pickering Nuclear plant a millionaire.
OK, that sounds like a pretty strange plan, but the fact is that by replacing the power from Pickering that Ontarians currently use with low-cost water power from Quebec, we could save so much money that we could make every Pickering worker a millionaire and still save billions on our electricity costs (you can see all the details in our new report).
Workers are given a more-than-fair settlement for the quick shutdown of an aging and increasingly unsafe plant and we all pay less for power. Plus, we end the production of tens of thousands of radioactive fuel bundles that are currently being piled up on the Pickering waterfront in warehouses and open water pools with no long-term storage solutions in sight.
And the wins just keep coming: If we embark on immediate decommissioning of the plant, as recommended by the International Atomic Energy Agency, we can create thousands of skilled jobs in dismantling its 50-year-old reactors and moving waste to a much more secure facility away from the water.
That, in turn, opens up a 750-acre waterfront site for redevelopment, just as the closure of the dirty Lakeview coal plant has allowed Mississauga to embark on an ambitious new plan for its waterfront.
Instead of accounting tricks that shift costs between ratepayers and taxpayers, our plan results in real bottom-line savings for everyone who buys electricity in Ontario. So let’s make Pickering workers millionaires and save ourselves some serious dough.
If you want to save on your hydro bill, sign our petition to close Pickering today!