Ontario’s electricity consumers are being zapped for tens of billions of dollars due to overpriced green energy, poor government planning, and shoddy service from Hydro One, says auditor general Bonnie Lysyk.

In her annual report, she concluded ratepayers forked out $37 billion more than necessary from 2006 to 2014 and will spend an additional $133 billion by 2032 due to global adjustment electricity fees on hydro bills.

Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli quickly disagreed, saying the charge was created by the previous Progressive Conservative government to reflect the “true cost” of generating electricity, including conservation measures, and to encourage producers to build power plants in Ontario.

“The word ‘overpaying’ (doesn’t) even enter into the equation,” Chiarelli told reporters Wednesday on the eve of his announcement on refurbishing the province’s aging nuclear reactors.

In 14 value-for-money audits spanning 773 pages, Lysyk also shone a light on problems with Ontario’s 47 children’s aid societies — including dubious executive expenses — community care access centres, and school buses to the bungled SAMS social assistance computer system and the lack of a plan for dealing with contaminated waste.

The report is “a stinging indictment of 12 years of Liberal waste and mismanagement,” said Tory MPP Lisa MacLeod (Nepean-Carleton).

Lysyk said children’s aid societies lack proper oversight and pointed to more than $100,000 in questionable claims without supporting documentation by a former boss at one CAS she and the government refused to name.

“A hotel room was rented in Toronto for a two-year period irrespective of whether it was used. Charges amounting to almost $90,000, including over $10,000 in incidentals such as parking and telephone charges, were paid by the society,” the auditor’s report said.

The same unnamed official also ran up “over $14,000 in car rental charges” and has agreed to repay some expenses.

Children and Youth Services Minster Tracey MacCharles said she was “disappointed” to hear of the problem and CAS boards will be sent bulletins reminding them this type of thing “should not happen.”

“It’s completely unacceptable. Money that is provided for the protection and well being of children should go to just that.”

But much of the auditor’s scorn was reserved for the energy ministry, which is overseeing the 60 per cent sell-off of Hydro One, the provincial electricity transmitter.

“Hydro One’s customers have a power system for which reliability appears to be worsening while costs are increasing,” said Lysyk, echoing Ed Clark, Premier Kathleen Wynne’s privatization czar, who has argued Hydro One should be run more professionally.

The comments appeared to rattle investors. Hydro One’s shares dipped 3.9 per cent to $21.95 on the Toronto Stock Exchange after debuting last month at $20.50.

Lysyk cited “more frequent power outages, mostly because assets aren’t being fully maintained” and infrequent tree trimming around power lines in her last audit of the company.

She found Ontario’s push to promote wind and solar energy is unnecessarily costly and the government ignored warnings from the now-defunct Ontario Power Authority that some power plants, like a biomass-fuelled station near Thunder Bay, were prohibitively expensive.

“People are paying more for hydro because this government arrogantly chose to ignore the advice of experts,” said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

Lysyk estimated consumers could end up paying $9.2 billion more for renewable energy over 20-year contracts issued under the Green Energy Act with guaranteed prices set at double the U.S. market price for wind and at 3.5 times the going rate for solar last year.

“With wind and solar prices around the world beginning to decline around 2008, a competitive process would have meant much lower costs,” she wrote, noting the government ignored advice from the Ontario Power Authority to seek bids for large renewable energy projects.

Chiarelli countered that the green energy measures were “ahead of the wave” in helping with climate change and a new competitive process for large renewable energy projects will be announced early in the new year.

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“Prices are going to be down very dramatically.”

The auditor also noted energy conservation efforts slated to cost $4.9 billion from 2006 to 2020 do “not necessarily” lead to savings because Ontario’s surplus electricity must be exported at a loss.

“Investing in conservation at a time of surplus actually costs us more.”

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