Niagara Falls and Thornhill voters get answers

From the Ontario Clean Air Alliance

Electricity prices have been a big issue in the two current provincial by-elections.  So we asked the candidates from the four major parties whether they were prepared to oppose Ontario Power Generation’s (OPG’s) request for a 30% price increase for nuclear power and whether they would strike a deal for lower-cost water power imports from Quebec instead.

Candidates from two parties – the NDP and Greens – said yes.  The Liberal Party candidates said they would leave it to the Ontario Energy Board to decide whether to grant OPG a price increase and that ‘the Ontario government has laid out a plan to consider opportunities for clean imports from other jurisdictions, but only when the scenario is right for Ontario ratepayers.’

The Progressive Conservative candidates refused to reply, despite campaigning on the need to bring down electricity costs and blaming green power sources for price increases, while ignoring the fact that it is nuclear energy that is far and away the largest contributor to recent price rises.

Voters in Niagara Falls and Thornhill have an interesting choice to make:  Support the status quo of giant and costly nuclear projects that have a long history of running vastly over budget or support candidates interested in developing a more flexible and cost-effective system by working with our neighbours in Quebec.

The full responses to our questionnaire are available on the OCAA website.