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Ontario electricity prices have soared, hurting industrial competitiveness

Government officials are quick to tout job-creation in renewable energy (wind, solar, etc.). But even when those job-creation estimates are taken at face value, we estimate that Ontario may have lost at least 1.8 permanent manufacturing jobs for every new job created under the province’s green energy initiatives since 2008. And this is a conservative estimate, since many of the green energy jobs were temporary.

So how did we get here? Why has manufacturing fled the province in recent years? Ontario’s manufacturing sector accounts for almost 40 per cent of Canada’s exports, so its decline is a matter of national concern.

Ontario now has the highest electricity costs among all Canadian provinces and some of the highest costs in North America. In 2016, large industrial consumers (with a power demand of five megawatts and monthly consumption of 3,060 megawatt hours) in Toronto and Ottawa paid almost three times more than consumers in Montreal and Calgary and almost twice as much as consumers in Vancouver. Even some select large industrial consumers (Class A) in Ontario, which were granted rate reductions, still paid higher rates compared to large electricity users in Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia.

Ontario now has the highest electricity costs among all Canadian provinces

Ontario electricity costs are also among the fastest growing. Between 2010 and 2016, electricity costs for small industrial consumers (with a power demand of one megawatt and monthly consumption of 400 megawatt hours) increased by 50 per cent in Ottawa and 48 per cent in Toronto, compared to 15 per cent (on average) in the rest of Canada. Increases for large Ontario industrial consumers were also far above those in other provinces.