Western Standard - Phasing out nat gas from Ontario grid would cost $3,300 per household per year

00:00:00.000 Well, it was the Canadians for affordable energy and they put out a report and it's

00:00:06.980 basically using the numbers from the independent electric system operator in Ontario.

00:00:12.380 We have one too.

00:00:13.380 It's what's called the Alberta electric system operator and just outlined some scenarios

00:00:19.100 of what would happen if they had to stop using natural gas, which comes from Alberta, under

00:00:27.560 the proposed so-called clean electricity regulations that were tabled earlier in the Alberta problem.

00:00:36.340 Alberta politicians have had such a problem.

00:00:39.300 So yeah, and Ontario only relies on about, unlike Alberta, they use natural gas to back

00:00:48.180 up basically their nukes and their wind.

00:00:51.460 So it only supplies about 10% of their overall electricity compared to more than 80% here

00:00:57.320 in Alberta.

00:00:58.320 And what they're saying is that they were forced to retire these gas fired plants early.

00:01:05.440 It would result in about a 3.5% reduction in GDP, 60% increase in power bills.

00:01:13.480 So that's where the 3,300 bucks per household per year comes from and possibly even tip the

00:01:21.400 government into a deficit after 2030.

00:01:24.400 I noticed that I think they had about a $2 billion surplus this year and this would reduce government

00:01:31.900 revenues anywhere like $4 or $5 billion a year after 2030.

00:01:36.600 So outside of electrical generation, does this apply to household natural gas use as well

00:01:41.900 for heating and cooking and whatnot?

00:01:44.060 Because that would impact your electric bill if you had to switch all that over as well.

00:01:47.400 Did you take that into account too?

00:01:48.400 As far as I know, it was only with regards to operating the power grid.

00:01:55.720 So whatever other electrical appliances and things that are used in there, it didn't specifically

00:02:02.240 reference getting rid of natural gas stoves, for instance, like they're talking about doing

00:02:07.400 in Quebec, I believe it's effective January 1st of this year.

00:02:10.400 Okay, so I just think that's a great irony, guys, because what you could do then is, well,

00:02:15.300 I want to save money on my electricity, so I'm going to take out my electric range and

00:02:19.060 take out my electric heating system and bring in natural gas because it'll be cheaper than

00:02:22.740 my electric bill now that they've gotten rid of gas-fired electricity.

00:02:26.400 The shoe is about to drop, as Sean will tell you, in Alberta tomorrow.

00:02:33.000 That $3,300 a year increase in Ontario, they only used 10% natural gas.

00:02:39.860 In Alberta, it's 80%.

00:02:42.400 So can you imagine that figure that's going to come down tomorrow for Alberta?

00:02:46.300 Well, and the consequences, again, we start getting to the, where do we go with this?

00:02:52.200 Is this, this is due to a national policy and provinces responding to it, but then electrical

00:02:57.800 generation is provincial policy.

00:02:59.300 Do you think, Nigel, we might see Ontario finally becoming a bit more of a vocal ally with Alberta

00:03:04.100 on this sort of issue?

00:03:05.300 You know?

00:03:06.300 It would be logical, wouldn't it?

00:03:08.300 Well, logically.

00:03:09.300 Well, yeah, but I mean, I didn't actually expect the Ontario government to be taking a logical

00:03:15.500 point of view on some other matters that related to the, you know, how children are instructed

00:03:21.160 in schools either, but it seems that they actually do react to, when they don't have an answer,

00:03:28.460 they react to what the public is saying, and here we are with apparently a sound calculation

00:03:35.140 that everybody's going to be paying $290 a month for power if they carry on with this.

00:03:41.940 That's got to, that's got to send people back to the drawing board, I mean, it's one thing

00:03:47.000 for Alberta to object to what the federal government is trying to pull, but when you've got Ontario

00:03:52.180 saying, just a minute, maybe we should rethink this, maybe we should put this off for a period

00:03:58.600 of time, then that rather undercuts what we were saying just a few moments ago about the

00:04:05.600 prime minister being able to build a solid block against Alberta and Saskatchewan, you know,

00:04:12.500 these people are not going to want to pay another $290 a month for their electricity.

00:04:17.260 Lord knows, we certainly don't, so I think we've got a common interest there.

00:04:21.540 Well, and again, I think, I think it's part of the problems among many that the federal liberals

00:04:26.540 just can't seem to understand and grasp when they realize there's an affordability issue in Canada.

00:04:31.600 They realize that they're losing in the polls because people can't afford their mortgages,

00:04:36.100 their rent, their utilities and their food, but they can't bring themselves to relax their

00:04:41.980 iron grip on their ideology that they have to stop these sorts of generation. 0.70

00:04:48.880 Like Dave, as you're saying, your bill is already and the rest of us in the hundreds of dollars

00:04:52.760 a month, we can't afford it.

00:04:54.520 Like ideology of the common citizen goes out the window.

00:04:56.640 So if you're worried about freezing to death or starving, I mean, or at least, you know,

00:05:00.160 losing weight and living colder.

00:05:01.540 Yeah.

00:05:01.980 And speaking of the liberals, Sean just finished a story on Wilkinson announced the sort of

00:05:09.380 the route to oil and gas emissions and didn't quite get up to Alberta's red line, but it

00:05:14.880 looks like it's coming pretty close.

00:05:16.020 I think Sean can.

00:05:17.020 Yeah, Sean.

00:05:18.020 So, I mean, we've been hearing that talk for quite a while too.

00:05:20.520 They keep nudging around the edges of it and everything.

00:05:23.880 Gilboa's sort of hinting at it as well, like, are we seeing the beginnings of them coming

00:05:28.600 up with a formal emissions cap soon?

00:05:31.200 Well, Gilboa has wanted to put in the emissions cap now for weeks and he's been delayed.

00:05:38.860 And part of the reason is because Premier Smith has essentially said that if they come through

00:05:44.400 with an emissions cap while they're doing this roundtable talks that they're off.

00:05:50.880 Yeah.

00:05:51.880 It's over though, you know, it sounds to me, she's pretty determined that if they do introduce

00:05:57.240 these caps, that she'll walk away from these so-called consultations, which include the

00:06:03.880 electricity regulations, by the way, that are supposed to be going on for the better part

00:06:08.280 of the year.

00:06:09.280 And Minister Zubola has said that he wants to unveil these caps by the time they head

00:06:16.200 off to the COP 28 summit in Dubai in the beginning of December, which Premier Smith has also said

00:06:25.640 that she will attend to unveil these carbon capture incentives, which are near and dear to her heart.

00:06:32.280 So part of the package that Wilkinson introduced today made mention of carbon capture, but also

00:06:40.680 said that the primary focus of government policy is going to be to remove those emissions before

00:06:47.080 they even hit the atmosphere, which is code word for an emissions cap, which is actually spelled out

00:06:53.160 in this policy document that he supposedly went to Paris to attend a critical minerals conference,

00:06:59.000 but instead dropped the carbon management program, you know, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.

00:07:04.440 But it says right in there, emissions cap on oil and gas in brackets pending.

Western Standard - September 28, 2023

Phasing out nat gas from Ontario grid would cost $3,300 per household per year

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