Andrew Stephenson

2018-04-21 15:43:22 -0400

“Flat earth. .Flat water commented 13 hours ago

Usually most people get fired for a pretty good reason… If you had a PhD for real you would know that. "

I do know that, but the corollary to that is that firing someone without good reason is generally pretty messy. If you’re going to argue that hydro rates got out of hand under his watch, I’ll just point out that rates have declined since 2015 when he took the helm, voiding that reason.



“Drew Wakariuk commented 11 hours ago

Andrew Stephenson public service jobs are nothing to be proud of , nor do they pay the bills for the province. The service is already bloated and the subject was minimum wage jobs which will be killed by the raise, SO NO TAXES FROM THEM . Read your own comment to keep up. "

Don’t assume they were all public sector jobs – the majority of created jobs were private sector. (see cansim 282-0089)



Andy Neimers

“If Ontario Hydro failed to upgrade their various sources of cheap AC in subsequent years, then that is the fault of mouth breather greenie politicians who put up barriers to further development at Niagara or more nuclear stations… Windfarms are sure as hell not the answer given the criminal subsidies given to an obviously “wobbly” source, and the contracts handed out by McSquinty and then Winnie The Poo’s governments are a prime lesson in insanity in government… The combination of Tesla and Westinghouse opened the door in Niagara to cheap power for coming generations… Too bad too, too many greenies in Ontario evidently didn’t go to school to study history… "

Here’s the deal, though. Ontario DID upgrade those various sources. The problem was, that those cheap sources were primarily nuclear, which is only cheap as long as the government subsidizes their construction; and coal which was far cheaper in the past when emission controls were lax. Now, of course, the government no longer subsidizes power plant construction meaning generators must recoup their costs through operating charges.



Which means, that given that the vast majority of power plants in Ontario will be refurbished or replaced over about a 25 year period 2000-2025, gets expensive. Hydro isn’t necessarily a salvation either; Manitoba’s building new dams, and the crushing costs now mean it’s by far the most fiscally imperiled province in the country.



Wind power was indeed quite expensive ten years ago – but it’s not the biggest cost (nor is it actually expensive anymore – it’s actually the cheapest source now, since capital costs have come down so much and renewables don’t need fuel). What did the auditor say, that only a third of the global adjustment went to wind power? And that’s excluding the massive capital costs of rebuilding the nuclear plants, which is well into the tens of billions. That money has to come from somewhere.

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