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Viewers might be naturally misled by who, exactly, is the “we” in this commercial. It sounds like it’s the whole province. It’s actually Ontario Power Generation, which isn’t mentioned until the end of the ad, and is obviously not the same thing.

Here is the truth. In 2005, OPG, a provincial Crown corporation, supplied about 70 per cent of Ontario’s power, and produced 30 per cent of its power from coal. That year, OPG shut the Lakeview Generating Station, a coal fired-plant in Toronto. Over the next few years OPG closed down its other coal stations: it decommissioned the Nanticoke and Lampton power plants; the Atikokan plant in northwestern Ontario now burns wood pellets, rather than coal; the power plant in Thunder Bay now burns what OPG calls “advanced biomass,” a kind of waterproof wood pellet that OPG imports from Norway. The 0.3 per cent of greenhouse gas that OPG refers to? That comes from its Lennox plant near Kingston, which burns oil and natural gas to create electricity.

But if it sounds like OPG’s $3-million ad is telling you that, other than that tiny amount, Ontario has freed its grid from fossil fuels. That’s just not true.

Why is a Crown corporation using public money to broadcast what a good job it’s doing?

First of all, OPG owns half of the Portlands Energy Centre in Toronto, which burns natural gas to make electricity. OPG omits that power plant from its greenhouse gas numbers, because “we are not the operators of that (facility)” says spokesman Neal Kelly.

But OPG only supplies half of Ontario’s power, mainly with nuclear plants and hydro power. The other half? That comes with plenty of emissions. The website of the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) lists 47 gas-powered facilities (of over 20 megawatts) in Ontario, most privately owned, providing about 10 per cent of the province’s electricity. OPG is saying it’s “99.7 per cent” free of greenhouse gas emissions simply because it has outsourced the pesky job of burning fossil fuels to others. Meanwhile, more than 10 per cent of Ontario’s power comes from burning fuels.