ONTARIO—The Ontario Clean Air Alliance (OCAA) is alerting consumers in the province that residential electricity rates have increased substantially.

“There is a spooky surprise for Ontario electricity customers coming right on the heels of Halloween. On November 1, electricity generation costs for residential consumers in the province will surge by 29 percent,” wrote Angela Bischoff, director of OCAA in a release October 30. “According to the Ontario Energy Board (OEB), which just approved this increase, a major cause of this cost jump is a result of an increasing reliance on expensive nuclear generation.”

“Premier (Doug) Ford knows a bad news story when he sees it. So, he is going to bury much of this increase on your electricity bill by increasing the taxpayer-financed Ontario Electricity Rebate (OER) from 13.1 percent to 23.5 percent,” the OCAA release continued.

“The bill for maintaining this taxpayer subsidy for electricity rates will now cost Ontario’s taxpayers much more than the $6 billion per year we’re already paying to artificially lower rates! This massive subsidy disguises the real cost of keeping the lights on with expensive nuclear reactors,” continued the OCAA.

Ms. Bischoff said things are going to get even worse. “The Ford government is planning to spend more than $20 billion on new US nuclear reactors that will produce power costing two to eight times more than solar and wind power. Given that it will take at least a decade, and probably more, to build these reactors, the province will be burning more pollution gas for years to come while it waits for these first-of-their-kind untested reactors to be completed.”

“Meanwhile, we could be deploying solar on rooftops and parking lots and building offshore wind in the Great Lakes right now to produce more affordable power,” says the OCAA. “The Premier’s decision to go with more expensive nuclear is a sweet treat for his friends in the nuclear and gas industries, but a nasty trick for Ontario electricity consumers and taxpayers at the worst possible time.”