Ontario wants to plug into potential power sites

The Globe and Mail

By Margaret Philp
From Thursday's Globe and Mail

The Ontario government is opening Crown land for development by power companies to harness the potential of the province's untapped rivers for hydroelectric projects.
Natural Resources Minister David Ramsay announced yesterday that the province has set a 30-day deadline for power companies to identify promising sites for developing hydroelectric projects anywhere on the swaths of Crown land -- mostly in the North -- that cover about 80 per cent of the province.

"We anticipate within 30 days we will have many suggestions for proposals of what sites need to be developed and have the greatest potential, very quickly," Mr. Ramsay said.

"There is pent-up energy in this particular industry to serve the needs of Ontario, because we need this green power."

The province also invited proposals to develop seven sites along two reaches of the Kapuskasing River that the province estimates holds the potential to generate 45 megawatts of power. First dibs on those projects will go to first-nations people.

And power companies are being asked to bid on the development of two ministry-owned dams near Bala and Orillia, where hydroelectric plants were decommissioned decades ago.

Mr. Ramsay said the ministry has pegged about 200 sites across the province that hold the potential to produce up to 5,000 megawatts of hydroelectric power, including rivers far from Ontario's power grid.

"We think most of the development of the northern rivers will be for local community use, not only for domestic purposes but possibly for also attracting industry there as they would develop a cheap supply of power.

"Further south, with easy access to the grid, that's where we think the greatest potential is."

In a power-hungry province that depends on nuclear power and fossil fuels for three-quarters of its energy supply, drawing on untapped sources of hydroelectricity makes environmental sense, promises to open the North to economic development and provides a healthier source of electricity to remote aboriginal communities that rely on diesel power, he said.

Power producers that have coveted Ontario's Crown land for years cheered the announcement.

"We're very pleased that the Ministry of Natural Resources has aligned its Crown-land-development policies with the energy imperatives the province is facing," said Paul Norris, head of the Ontario Waterpower Association.

But Ontario NDP Leader Howard Hampton charged that putting control of the province's cheapest and cleanest sources of power into private hands will inflate electricity prices.

"That's because, unlike publicly owned utilities, private generators demand substantial profits, pay higher interest costs and pay out rich executive salaries."

The McGuinty government has pledged to increase the province's reliance on sources of renewable energy such as waterpower, which accounts for about 8000 megawatts, or one-quarter, of Ontario's power.