Gas Plant Scandal or not?

 

 A lot has been said during the campaign about the gas plant scandal and how the Liberals have been covering up everything under the sun. Hudak and Horwath have gone on record saying that had they won the 2011 election they would have cancelled the gas plants. Anyway I received a very interesting email this morning in my in-box, and I wanted to share it with you.


 Hudak Conservatives mislead with gas plant cancellation costs.

Wikipedia Ontario "Gas Plant Scandal” ays

It is now said that the final financial impact of the Liberal cancellations of the Oakville and Mississauga gas plants will approach $1.1 billion.^[18] That figure however is much larger than that stated by the Auditor General of $675 Million. The figure stated by the Auditor General in turn is disputed by Ontario Power Generation. Ontario Power Generation still maintains "Although the OPA’s and the Auditor General’s cost estimates are different, we continue to support our assumptions, as this difference, as set out in the report, is for the most part attributable to the assumptions used to calculate future costs."

However the discrepancy is a bit simpler to understand. The 'Costs incurred' of cancelling the gas plants is $253 Million according to the Auditor General's report. The 'Estimated future costs' include gas delivery and management services for a new Napanee plant, gas and hydro connections for that future Napanee plant, the cost of additional gas for potentially less efficient turbines, transmission system upgrades (which were already planned ^[19]), line losses for the distance power has to travel from Napanee, and for replacement power beginning in 2017. The Auditor General subtracts future savings from that figure to arrive at $675 Million. Opposition parties use the total cost of cancellation and include the cost of building the Napanee replacement plant while leaving out the cost savings.

Note that these numbers are from the Auditor General and OPG, not the Liberal Party.