TORONTO — Auditor general Bonnie Lysyk says electricity customers in Ontario have paid billions of dollars for the Liberal government's decisions to ignore its own planning process for new power generation projects.
The Ontario Power Authority's 20-year technical plan, which was updated every three years and reviewed by the Ontario Energy Board, would have offered protection to consumers, said Lysyk.
"Instead of following the legislated process, the Ministry of Energy itself effectively assumed responsibility for electricity planning," she said.
The ministry issued policy plans and 93 directives that the auditor said "did not fully consider the state of the electricity market, did not take long-term effects fully into account," and sometimes went against the OPA's advice.
"Ontario electricity ratepayers have had to pay billions for these decisions," she said.
The electricity portion of hydro bills for homes and small businesses rose 70 per cent between 2006 and 2014, which Lysyk said cost consumers $37 billion dollars in so-called Global Adjustment payments to generators — and will cost ratepayers another $133 billion by 2032.
The auditor found the Green Energy Act is also driving up rates. Hydro customers will pay a total of $9.2 billion more for wind and solar projects under the Liberals' 20-year guaranteed-price program for renewable energy than they would have paid under the old program.
Ontario's guaranteed prices for wind power generators are double the U.S. average, while the province's solar power rates are three-and-a-half times higher.
The auditor said the lack of a co-ordinated planning process resulted in additional cost of $408 million to pay generators for the increased power they produced, or for not producing power at the request of the system operator.
Ontario's average annual electricity surplus between 2009 and 2014 was equal to the total power generation capacity of Manitoba, and in the next five years its base load generation will exceed Ontario's demand by an amount equal to Nova Scotia's power needs for five years.
In her report, the auditor general said the reliability of Hydro One, which owns the province's transmission grid and also serves as a local distribution company for 1.3 million customers in rural and northern Ontario, has "worsened considerably." Its distribution system was consistently one of the least reliable in Canada, said Lysyk.
"There is a risk of more power failures because Hydro One is not replacing transmission assets that have exceeded their planned useful service life," she said.
The auditor's report is also critical of the way the Liberals hand out taxpayers' money.
Lysyk found 80 per cent of $1.45 billion in funding from the Ministry of Economic Development and Employment went to companies the Liberals invited to apply, but they couldn't provide criteria they used to select firms or say if they created jobs.
Nine other ministries gave out another $1.8 billion in funding for similar projects, but the auditor found there is no co-ordination of the government spending, and there was no follow-up to see if the jobs created or retained still existed after the funding ended.
The Ministry of Finance provides over $1.3 billion in corporate income-tax credits targeted to economic development and jobs each year, but the Ministry of Economic Development "rarely considers these when determining which businesses to provide grants and loans to."
The Ministry of Research and Innovation does not track the total amount of money invested by the government in research and development, nor does it evaluate the impact of research funded by the province, which gave universities $1.9 billion over the past five years.
The auditor also takes the Liberals to task for poor oversight and inconsistent service levels at Community Care Access Centres and Local Health Integration Networks, and for not responding quickly enough to reports of critical incidents at the Ontario's 630 long-term care homes, which get $3.6 billion a year in provincial funding.
She also wants more specifics on how they plan to lower the province's debt-to-GDP ratio to 27 per cent from the 39.5 per cent reported in March, and warns net debt of $284.5 billion will soar to $319.5 billion by 2017-18, which is when the Liberals have promised to eliminate the deficit.
HIGHLIGHTS OF 2015 ONTARIO AUDITOR GENERAL'S ANNUAL REPORT
TORONTO — Here are the highlights of the 2015 report by Ontario auditor general Bonnie Lysyk:
- Ontario electricity consumers are paying billions of dollars more for the Liberal government's decision to ignore its own planning process for new power generation projects
- The electricity portion of hydro bills for homes and small-businesses rose 70 per cent between 2006 and 2014, which cost consumers $37 billion dollars in so-called Global Adjustment payments to generators
- Hydro customers will pay a total of $9.2 billion more for wind and solar projects under the Liberal's 20-year guaranteed-price program for renewable energy than they would have paid under the old program
- Many elderly and disabled Ontarians are not getting much-needed home-care services on time, with some waiting more than a year just for assessments
- The level of home-care services that Community Care Access Centres provide vary widely across the province, as each CCAC develops its own criteria because of funding inequities
- None of Ontario's 14 Local Health Integration Networks has ever met all of the targets in 15 performance areas, so the Ministry of Health kept relaxing their targets
- In the long-term care sector, Lysyk found the ministry did complete comprehensive inspections of Ontario's 630 facilities and will continue to do so annually.
- A backlog of critical incident and complaint inspections at Ontario's 630 long-term care homes doubled between December 2013 and March 2015
- Some of Ontario's 47 Children's Aid Societies take too long to complete investigations of possible abuse and the government lacks sufficient information about the quality of care they provide
- The government isn't doing enough to encourage more mining development, especially the mineral-rich Ring of Fire project, located about 500 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay
- The province needs to develop a long-term plan for inspecting and rehabilitating 4,400 abandoned mine sites, which the government estimates could cost anywhere between $163 million to $782 million
- There is little co-ordination between various ministries of the billions of dollars given to companies to help create jobs and no follow-up to see if the jobs last after the funding ends
- The province does not track the total funding ministries and agencies invest in research and development — over $1.9 billion given to universities over the past five years — and doesn't evaluate the impact of the funded research
