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.

Hudak would be wrong for Ontario.

I've been very vocal on why I think Hudak would make a lousy Premier. Yes he's a great father, great husband, and most likely a great guy, but when it comes to politics, and leadership he sucks.

The main plank of his platform is the creation of 1 million jobs in 8 years. On the surface it looks great with all the fancy signage, posters, and news bits, but when you look into his plan in greater detail it's a flop, and here's why.

He starts off his plan by saying that he will fire 100,000 public service employees over 2 years. 100,000 people being let go works our to about 934 people for every riding in Ontario. The severance packages that most of these people would receive could cost taxpayers billions of dollars. Not all of these laid off people will be able to find work which means that they will be collecting unemployment insurance, or go on social assistance which puts a further financial burden on the taxpayers.

A plan to create 1 million jobs, by firing 100,000 makes no sense and several well known economist from across Canada and the United States agree with me. Hudak's plan is to also lower corporate taxes so businesses will once again relocate to Ontario and boost our manufacturing sector which has lost about 300,000 jobs since the great recession. Our corporate tax rate is one of the lowest in Canada, and trickle down economics has proven to be a complete failure. Lowering corporate taxes does not create jobs, it just makes the corporations richer, and richer.

Hudak also blames our high energy costs as another reason why businesses won't relocate to Ontario. Yes our Hydro rates are high, but Hudak has not said how he intends to lower them, he has no plan, and if he does he needs to tell voters. Energy is not just Hydro it also includes, ground transportation like trucking. No Premier has control over the price of gas, as that's controlled on the open world market. Our high wages in Ontario is another factor in the cost of why businesses don't relocate to Ontario.

Again some of the world's leading economists have said that no matter who's Premier, the Ontario economy will create over 600,000 jobs in 8 years. Our economy works in cycles, and every decade we seem to hit a low, and then go back to where we were before the low hit. Just take a look at the United States. Back in 2007-08 the US Economy was losing about 750,000 jobs a month as a result of financial policies at the time. Since 2009 when unemployment hit a record high of 10%, the US Economy has added millions of jobs and the unemployment rate is about 6.6% and projected to go down to the 5% range in the next 8-12 months.

Hudak wants to cut, cut, cut, when cutting won't be required. Even former Premier, Mike Harris only cut 13,000 public service employees, and looked what happen, strikes, lock-outs, protests at Queens Park, larger class sizes, schools in need of repair, nurses and doctors leaving Ontario for the United States. What affect would 100,000 people being cut would do for our social services? It would be nightmare, and much worse than the Harris years.

When I read news articles praising the Hudak plan, it's very upsetting that these people don't see what a Hudak government would do to Ontario, and hopefully voters will see Hudak for what he is, a complete failure.