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The Alberta government could cut its losses by exercising its own right to terminate the PPAs, requiring it to repay producers for the net book value of the plants, about $950 million. The NDP refuses to do that. So while it drags this through court instead, the Balancing Pool may end up having to whack Albertans for a total of $2 billion of power-contract losses. And then there are the legal bills.

Ironically, the PPAs had been working splendidly for Albertans until the NDP upturned the cart, with $4 billion already rebated to ratepayers from contracts and auctions over the years; had the contracts not had that security clause, they couldn’t have sold for nearly as much, and maybe not sold at all. But the government has turned that great deal into a disaster. The deputy premier, Sarah Hoffman, insists no one in the public service warned her government this would happen, yet refuses to blame anyone but power companies exercising their contractual rights to get out of a money-losing deal.

No matter who dropped this particular ball, the reality is that in barely a year of governing the NDP has rattled any investors considering putting money into Alberta by announcing new carbon taxes, caps on emissions, a ban on certain fuels, and threatening (but ultimately passing on) royalty changes. Last month it changed regulations to make it harder for distressed oil companies to sell off oil licences. Now, it wants to wiggle out of 16-year-old contracts by painting business leaders as scoundrels. Add it up and the message the NDP is sending is loud and clear: Alberta is no longer open for business.