March 3, 2017
The Editors
The Globe and Mail
444 Front st.
Toronto,
Dear Sir Madam,
While I am no fan of the Wynne government's scheme for a short term reduction in Ontario electricity rates, it is both wrong and unfair to suggest, as the Globe does, that somehow Ontario's electricity problems began with the election of Dalton McGuinty's government in 2003. The reality is that they go back much further. Mr. McGuinty inherited the disastrous consequences of Progressive Conservative Premier Mike Harris' failed attempt to liberalize Ontario's electricity system, a strategy that was itself an effort to deal with the virtual implosion of the province's former monopoly electricity system operator, Ontario Hydro, a process that had its roots in the utility's program of nuclear mega-projects set in motion in the 1960s and 70s.
To the extent that real culpability lies with the Liberal government, it is in its failure to establish a meaningful and effective planning and regulatory framework for the electricity system to ensure that investments are cost-effective, and that the resulting system does not pass major environmental, economic and social costs and risks on to future generations.
Yours sincerely
Mark S. Winfield, Ph.D.
Professor