TORONTO—Ontario has some advice for its fellow provinces as they move to meet the federal government’s newly unveiled goal of eliminating coal-fired power generation in Canada by 2030: keep an eye on those electricity bills.
Shutting down coal plants has all but eliminated Ontario’s once-ubiquitous smog days, making life easier for people with asthma and other breathing problems.
But it cost billions of dollars to build new transmission lines and replace coal with power from natural gas, wind, solar and biomass projects—not to mention maintaining a fleet of expensive nuclear reactors that still supply about half of the province’s electricity.
Electricity rates for homes and small businesses in Ontario jumped 70 percent between 2006 and 2014 as coal was being phased out.
The province’s auditor general said the Liberal government’s planning and implementation of new power generation as it moved to replace coal cost consumers an extra $37 billion during that time, and was expected to cost another $133 billion from 2015 to 2032.
