Ford government's cancellation of green energy contracts cost province $231 million
Doug Ford’s government has spent almost a quarter of a billion dollars scrapping green energy contracts, according to information revealed by the NDP.
Energy critic Peter Tabuns revealed the spending information during question period on Tuesday, saying that the Ford government spent $231 million in tax dollars while “families struggle to afford high hydro prices.”
The NDP said they “spotted a strange number in the Public Accounts for the Ministry of Energy — a $231 million expense for ‘other transactions.'”
The party said that it then identified this as the cost of cancelling about 750 green energy contracts, including the White Pines wind project.
“The Ford government was clearly just making stuff up again when it claimed that ripping up green energy contracts wouldn’t cost Ontario families,” said Tabuns. “The $231-million price tag for Ford’s war on green energy projects exposes that claim as pure fiction.”
Tabuns added that Ford is forcing Ontario families to pay the price of his wrong-headed decision to walk away from the clean energy projects.
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“This just adds insult to injury as Ford takes things from bad to worse for Ontario families by letting hydro bills go up, not down, instead of fixing the hydro mess left behind by the Liberals.”
The Environmental Defence said that Ontario spending $231 million to scrap renewable energy projects when renewables are cheaper than ever leaves the province relying on polluting gas power.
In July of 2018, the Ontario provincial government said it’s cancelling 758 renewable energy contracts in an effort to reduce electricity bills in the province.
The move was said to save Ontario taxpayers $790 million, according to the Minister of Energy, Northern Development, and Mines, Greg Rickford, at the time.
The White Pines Wind Project, which was scrapped, was to consist of nine wind turbines that would feed an estimated 52,295,800 kWh annually into the local electricity grid, equivalent to the average annual power use of 3,005 homes.
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