Power plant cancellations could cost $1.1B: Auditor general – by Richard J. Brennan and Robert Benzie (Toronto Star – October 9, 2013)

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

It could cost Ontario taxpayers up to $1.1 billion to scrap two gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga so the Liberals could save five seats in the 2011 election.

Premier Kathleen Wynne admitted it was a “big . . . bad mistake” to scrap power plants in Oakville and Mississauga after a report by Ontario’s financial watchdog found taxpayers are on the hook for up to $1.1 billion.

That number was the startling tally Tuesday from auditor general Bonnie Lysyk in a long-awaited report on the price tag for scuttling the Oakville generating station three years ago — the first of two cancellations to save five Liberal seats in the 2011 election.

Lysyk concluded the tab for cancelling Oakville and relocating the plant to Napanee could skyrocket to $815 million — dramatically more than the $310 million the Ontario Power Authority had estimated and exponentially higher than the $40 million the Grits initially claimed.

Wynne was grim-faced as she faced questions about the report. “Money is too tight for tax dollars to be spent in any way that is not productive,” acknowledged the premier, who inherited the problem from her predecessor Dalton McGuinty.

“It was a big mistake . . . it was a bad mistake,” she added, promising changes that will give municipalities more say over power plant locations.

The Oakville station was to be built by TransCanada Energy, which is being compensated for a number of factors, including the extra expense of shipping natural gas to the new eastern Ontario location — 240 kilometres away.

Lysyk’s 24-page report depicts chronic bungling — with the Ontario Power Authority approving the Oakville site despite local opposition and McGuinty’s aides assuring TransCanada it would be fully reimbursed, ignoring “protections in that contract that could have minimized the damages.”

To that end, Wynne also promised a prohibition on political staff conducting such negotiations.
“They should not have the authority . . . to bind the government to agreements when there hasn’t been due process.”
For the rest of this article, click here: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/10/08/liberals_power_plant_cancellations_cost_11b_auditor_general.html#