Rethinking Northern Ontario! On the need for a proactive Northern Ontario energy policy: energy is an important issue for Ontario. The Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM) Leaders' Summit has put it at the top of the list. How important is it for Northern Ontario?

• Position: NEWS

Electricity prices are the hottest topic. When Northern Ontario has a surplus of cheap hydro power, why should Northern industries pay southern prices? Northern Ontario competes with Manitoba, Quebec, and the United States, which have lower power prices. The North has lost jobs as plants move to regions with cheaper power. Does it really make sense that one region that exports power should be losing jobs to another region that exports power?

The Northern Ontario Large Urban Mayors have called for a regional pricing policy The government commissioned a study of regional pricing that concluded it would have little effect on Northern prices. The province rejected regional pricing, but it is providing a temporary subsidy for the largest pulp and paper plants.

Does regional pricing make sense? In the long run it does not make sense to depend on cheap electricity The major trap around electricity prices is the danger of spending money subsidizing industries that are on their way out, instead of putting resources into the future economy.

Additionally, it needs to said that the power from Northern Ontario is cheap and clean, yet the region derives only modest benefit from this gift to the province. There needs to be some realignment.

To see how seriously Ontario has fumbled on energy planning, consider the fact that on July 19,2005 the cost of importing power reached 39 cents a kilowatt hour, seven times what consumers were paying. New England states could provide power to Ontario because they had added 8,000 megawatts of generating capacity between 1999 and 2005. That's equivalent to about one-third of Ontario's total capacity. In 2005, Ontario was helping them pay for that new capacity Northern energy exports, according to the Northern Ontario Large Urban Mayors, could be an important source of new revenue for the North. Ontario has approximately 190 potential hydro power sites, mainly in Northern Ontario, that could collectively generate 7500 MW of power.

Expanding hydro doesn't help us very much if it doesn't come with a specific Northern strategy Power is a low-value commodity unless you own it or put it to work doing something that helps you develop. Resource companies historically had good reason to build their own power facilities. It insulated them from potential grid problems and more importantly external price hikes. They could predict their energy prices and plan accordingly. So there is a big difference between building power for a...