Critics Berate Ont. Government's Power Promise

TORONTO, ON -- - The Ontario government pledged yesterday it will ensure the province has an adequate supply of electric power "today, tomorrow and into the future."

But opposition politicians said the promise in the Speech from the Throne is an empty one because the Conservative government created the power industry's problems in the first place.

"This Premier brought down the electricity industry," said Liberal MPP Michael Bryant (St. Paul's). "Nobody trusts this government when it comes to reforming electricity."

The province flirted with blackouts during last summer's hot weather that boosted power demand to record levels. At one point, the only thing that saved transmission lines from overheating and triggering a power failure was a breeze that suddenly sprang up and cooled off crucial circuits in the Niagara area.

While the throne speech promised an adequate power supply, it contained few specifics that hadn't been announced already.

And it made no mention of the $2.5 billion refit of Ontario Power Generation's Pickering A nuclear station, which is $1.2 billion over budget and three years behind schedule. The station was mothballed in 1997.

Energy Minister John Baird backed away from confirming the government's previous assurance that the first unit of Pickering A will be running by the end of June.

"I don't have the specific schedule, but it'll be generating electricity this summer, which is good news," Baird said in an interview following the speech.

Bryant also noted that the government has taken no action on its promise to hold a probe into the reasons for the cost overruns and delays at Pickering A.

The throne speech repeated previously announced plans for a proposed 550-megawatt generator fired by natural gas in Toronto's portlands, now under study by Ontario Power Generation and TransCanada PipeLines.

And the speech re-announced a study currently under way by OPG to drill a new tunnel to carry additional Niagara River water to generating stations at Queenston, below Niagara Falls, which would boost their output.

As U.S. officials prepare to announce today that they'll mount a challenge under the North American Free Trade Agreement to reduce emissions from Ontario's coal-fired generating stations, the speech promised to phase out coal-fired stations by 2015, and pledged an "integrated energy conservation strategy" to lower consumption and reduce strain on the province's power grid.

Baird also said yesterday that Ontario and Manitoba will study building a new transmission line to carry Manitoba hydroelectric power — maybe as much as 6,000 megawatts — to Ontario. (Ontario's generating stations can crank out about 30,000 megawatts). The new line wouldn't be up and running for at least eight years.