Some people age faster than others. There are people in their 80s who you would swear were 20 years younger. And then there are people such as Ontario Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli. Sure he is only in his early 70s but he should know better than to act as he did in front the news media the other day. If was definitely impolitic for him to say that the Ontario Auditor General was wrong.
To say that the auditor “did not understand” is not only a career ender but an immediate signal for Premier Wynne to remove him from cabinet. It is impossible to imagine anyone with any political savvy advising a cabinet minister to make such a comment.
The auditor general is an officer of the legislature and to challenge her veracity is a very serious charge. It is the same as asking for the auditor’s dismissal and you had better have all your ducks in line. You certainly do not make vague charges that she did not understand the pricing of electricity. At the news conference, nobody had any confidence that Chiarelli understood the pricing either.
Pricing of electricity in Ontario has been something of a political confidence racket for many years. The person who wins arguments about electricity pricing is usually the one who can keep the straightest face. And what it really costs to build generating capabilities and then to produce, transmit and distribute electricity to Ontario homes, offices, businesses and streetlights, as well as pay down debt, are figures based on confusion, compounded by creativity. And if you ever find a way to rationalize your charge for just being on stream, you will know more than most of us.
But it is the consumer who gets ripped off no matter what political party is in power. The New Democrats incompetently in power in the early 90s and then Mike Harris’ reign of terror led to Father McGuinty’s Ponzi scheme for wind and sun power. Ontario has been paying too little for electrical power for many years and the banking buzzards have now taken to roosting on the transmission lines and dropping excrement on us. (They want us to sell off local distribution systems so that the bankers’ friends can get some of the action.) We are not only paying the piper but we are paying for the horrendous blunders compounded by all political parties.
All the public can hope for is that Ms. Wynne fire that incompetent Minister Chiarelli and put someone in the hot seat who can force the various elements of the electricity system to make some sense of their costs and billings and then pass the savings—or explanations—on to the consumers.
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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