On June 15th Toronto City Council asked the Government of Canada to issue Clean Electricity Regulations to stop Ontario Power Generation’s plan to expand the size of its Portlands gas plant on the Toronto waterfront.
It is time for Jagmeet Singh to support Toronto City Council’s request since we have cleaner and lower cost options to keep our lights on.
According to a Royal Bank report, Ontario can avoid the need for new gas-fired electricity generation and save more than $500 million per year by investing in energy efficiency and demand management.
We can also avoid the need for more gas generation to keep our air-conditioners on during hot summer days by importing clean renewable electricity from Quebec. Since Quebec’s demand for electricity peaks in the winter, Hydro Quebec has a huge surplus of waterpower capacity available for export to Ontario during the summer.
In March 2022 Jagmeet Singh agreed to keep Prime Minister Trudeau in power until June 2025 in return for Trudeau’s promise that Canada will achieve significant greenhouse gas emission reductions by 2030. Needless to say, Doug Ford’s plans to build new gas generation and ramp up the greenhouse gas pollution of our gas plants by more than 300% by 2030 and by 700% by 2043 will jeopardize Canada’s ability to achieve significant greenhouse gas emission reductions.
Elizabeth May (Leader of the Green Party of Canada), Mike Schreiner (Leader of the Green Party of Ontario), and Jessica Bell (NDP MPP – University-Rosedale) have already asked Prime Minister Trudeau to prohibit the building of new gas generation in Ontario.
What you can do
Please contact Jagmeet Singh and ask him to use his political leverage to persuade Prime Minister Trudeau to prohibit the expansion of the Portlands gas plant on Toronto’s waterfront.