Ontario could benefit from Quebec’s overflowing hydro electricity

Quote: “Quebec is the fourth-largest producer of hydroelectric power in the world and its electricity rates are among the lowest in North America. Its residential rates are 45 per cent lower than ours [in Ontario] and its industrial rates are 55 per cent lower. In recent years, the province has produced far more cheap clean electricity than it can use itself.

“Meanwhile, its next-door neighbour, Ontario, is struggling with some of the highest power costs in the country and facing a minimum $13-billion bill to refurbish the Darlington nuclear reactors. There is already enough transmission capacity linking the two provinces to replace 97 per cent of the power currently produced by Darlington — and a tremendous opportunity to strike a deal that would provide huge economic benefits for both provinces.

“Hydro Quebec currently exports power to New England at rates as low as three cents per kilowatt-hour. Planners for the Darlington refurbishment estimate that the project will result in power at a cost of 8.3 cents per kWh.”

— from “Put an end to Canada’s costly electricity separatism,” by Jack Gibbons, chair of the Ontario Clean Air Alliance, Toronto Star, July 21.