The elephant in the room of the current Ontario provincial election is how vulnerable our province’s electricity system has become to the whims of an erratic American president.
As reported in the Toronto Star today, use of fossil gas for power generation in Ontario has soared since the Ford Government was elected in 2018. Last year, 16% of our electricity was produced by burning gas – up from only 4% in 2017. According to the Independent Electricity System Operator, 25% of our electricity will be produced by gas by 2030. This is not just bad for our health and our climate, it also reduces our energy security since a lot of the gas being burned in our power plants, like the polluting Portlands plant on the Toronto waterfront, comes from Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Meanwhile, the excuse for burning more and more gas is that Ontario plans to build a number of new nuclear reactors – eventually. But according to a report in today’s Globe and Mail, these new reactors will depend on enriched uranium imports from the U.S.
As Bob Walker, National Director of Canadian Nuclear Workers’ Council, told the Globe:
“Developing a dependence on another country for our nuclear fuel has always been a concern and recent events have proven those concerns are justified… A presidential executive order could force the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to disallow shipments to Canada.”
Instead of making our electricity system more vulnerable to attacks from the U.S., we could be increasing our energy security, creating jobs and lowering our electricity bills by investing in wind and solar energy and expanding Canada’s east-west electricity grid.
We asked all four of our major parties where they stand on phasing-out gas power and tripling our wind and solar power. We only heard back from the NDP, Liberals and Greens. Please ask your PC candidates where they stand on energy security.
Thank you for raising electricity issues in the election with your local candidates.