It has been five years since the Ontario Conservatives cancelled many of the contracts for solar and wind electrical power negotiated by the Wynn Government. His claim that they were too costly for Ontario never held water. So, after announcing some Gas electrical turbines over the past few years, the Ford Government of Ontario surprised everyone with announcements in the first week of July for four new nuclear power generating units to be built in Ontario. For over three decades the political parties of Ontario have refused to even consider adding more nuclear electrical energy to Ontario even though it has proven to be the backbone of electricity for the province. It is a positive decision, that other political parties would not even consider.
Coming after announcing the funding in St. Thomas for a Volkswagen lithium car battery park and offering more money to Stellantis to build another lithium car battery plant in Windsor, the Conservative government recognized that if they were going to operate on a green economy, the province would need to more than double its electrical generating capacity by 2050. Already most Ontario power is considered green energy and that advantage helped secure the Volkswagen plant in Ontario.
The proposed nuclear power plants will take over a decade to begin producing power. Already, lithium technology is having an impact across Ontario as junior miners are combing much of Northern Ontario for deposits of Lithium.
Over 700 green energy projects were cancelled when the Ford Conservative Government took control in 2018. It was not the building of new nuclear generating facilities at Bruce which already provides 30 per cent of Ontario’s power nor the adding of three Small Modular Reactors (SMR), but also the opening of the province to new solar, wind, and hydro projects.
The Ford Government is hoping that by developing the SMR technology, it will be able to sell and export that technology around the globe. It is a good business decision. It is anticipated that over $50 billion will be spent on new nuclear generation in the quarter century and tens of billions more will be spent on distributing that power across Ontario.
Solar and wind power generating costs have come down with new technologies and are expected to continue to drop in price. We are witnessing the transformation of trucks and cars to becoming electrically powered vehicles only. In the trades, workers have seen their tools transform from electrical cables to fully light-weight battery operated devices. Lawn mowers, snow blowers, chain saws, tree limbers, weed trimmers, hedge trimmers are all moving from gas powered motors to electrical battery tools.
All this is a big gamble to keep Ontario at the forefront of this new green revolution.
