Ontario could buy more Quebec electricity, Kathleen Wynne suggests

Premier Kathleen Wynne is raising the possibility that Ontario may buy more electricity from Quebec, a move environmentalists have been urging her government to pursue.

Aug. 21, 2014
thestar.com
By Rob Ferguson

Premier Kathleen Wynne is raising the possibility that Ontario may buy more electricity from Quebec, a move environmentalists have been urging her government to pursue.

The Liberals need to examine the issue, but any changes would have to be a good deal for Ontario, she said during a joint press conference Thursday with Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard.

She suggested importing more Quebec power may help spur industrial development in hard-hit northern Ontario. Opposition critics have long complained that high hydro rates are driving businesses out of the north.

Ontario imports power from Quebec only when it’s being offered at the same price or lower than domestic generation, said Alexandra Campbell, a spokeswoman for the Independent Electricity System Operator.

Last year, it imported 4.2 terawatt hours of electricity from Quebec and more than 85 per cent of imports were from Quebec.

In addition to Quebec, Ontario has interconnections with Manitoba, Minnesota, Michigan and New York state.

Earlier Thursday, Wynne met with Couillard to discuss infrastructure funding, the Star’s Rob Ferguson reports.

“We’ve agreed that the federal government’s refusal to work with us and partner with us, particularly on infrastructure, has the possibility of holding Canada’s economy back,” Wynne said.

“We can’t let that hold us back as premiers,” she added in advance of next week’s meeting of premiers and territorial leaders in Prince Edward Island.

Wynne has previously called for $12 billion a year in infrastructure funding from the federal government - more than four times what Ontario gets now - and reiterated that provinces need “stable and predictable” aid on that front to upgrade transit systems, roads, bridges, water and sewage treatment facilities.

“That is not the case now and that is what we are asking,” said Wynne, who, like Couillard, won a majority government in an election this year.

That status gives the two premiers a stronger position in dealing with Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government, said Couillard.

“We are signalling today that...Quebec and Ontario are back...as a very important block of influence in the country,” he told reporters. “When we have common concerns...it’s good that we voice those concerns together.”

Wynne, who has been unsuccessfully pushing Ottawa to enhance the Canada Pension Plan while promising a provincial pension scheme, called upon Harper to meet regularly with all the premiers to spark “much more conversation and collaboration” on the issues that Canada faces.

“Do I see that happening? Hope springs eternal,” she said.

Wynne and Couillard agreed to hold a joint cabinet meeting by year’s end so that ministers can work together on issues of joint interest such as climate change and to build on a 2009 agreement on trade between Ontario and Quebec.

Wynne’s push for $12 billion in infrastructure funding has been labelled as “divorced from fiscal reality,” federal Finance Minister Joe Oliver told the Star recently.

“We are not going to engage in a wild spending spree, which will create massive deficits and increase the debt...We will also not jeopardize our top credit rating and we will not add to the intergenerational burden,” he said.

Oliver said since 2006 Ontario has received more than $12.3 billion from various federal infrastructure programs or more than three times what the previous Liberal government paid out to the province from 1993 to 2006.