Article content continued

So, the government decided in the late 1990s, we’ll reform the industry and run it more like a business. Fine idea. Lousy execution.

We’ll contract out nuclear generation. Wait, no, we won’t. We’ll change the way local distribution companies like Hydro Ottawa work, so that some of them end up as non-profits, some don’t; some merge, some don’t; some get privatized, some don’t. We’ll use the energy system to goose the green economy by investing in wind and solar power. We’ll pretend that that saved money by giving people a “clean energy” discount even though clean energy costs more. We’ll let that expire. We’ll charge extra to pay off Ontario Hydro’s billions in old debt. OK, we’ll stop. We’ll spend almost $2 billion on smart meters and then keep the price difference between peak and low-use times so low they barely do any good.

All of that was just in the last 15 years.

Now we’re going to use the electricity system to redistribute wealth, though electricity rebates are a very clumsy way to move money from richer people to poorer people. The amount of the rebate isn’t tied to how much power recipients use; it’s based only on income and how many people live in the household. Also, the program will apply only to people who pay electricity bills directly, not to people who live in places where electricity is included in their rent.

The scheme here has been put together under the supervision of Chiarelli and the head of the province’s main electricity regulator, the Ontario Energy Board. That’s Rosemarie Leclair, who was a senior Ottawa city manager when Chiarelli was mayor and then became president of Hydro Ottawa. Chiarelli wrote to the energy board with the general shape of what he wanted and the boffins came up with the specifics.