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(Queen’s Park): Green Party of Ontario leader Mike Schreiner is calling for a public review of the costs of the Liberal government’s multi-billion dollar plan to rebuild the Bruce B Nuclear Station.
“Your pocketbook is at risk whenever the government does a backroom deal with the nuclear industry,” says Schreiner. “It’s outrageous for the Liberals to sign Ontario’s largest private sector contract ever behind closed doors.”
The government announced last week that it would sign a deal with Bruce Power without submitting it to the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) for review. This lack of transparency and accountability will prevent the OEB from determining whether Ontario can meet its electricity needs at a lower cost.
“Ontario cannot afford to write the nuclear sector a blank cheque by doing an end run around the public review process,” says Schreiner. “The same backroom bureaucrats that brought you the gas plant scandal now want to sign the biggest private sector deal ever with NO public review.”
No nuclear project in Ontario’s history has delivered on time or on budget. The 2012 restart of the Bruce A Units 1 and 2 reactors came in $2 billion over budget and over 2 years behind schedule. The cost of electricity from Bruce A Units 1 and 2 is more than three times the spot market price of water power imports from Quebec.
“The Liberals are prioritizing nuclear profits over saving you money,” says Schreiner. “Why is the government afraid of a public review of nuclear costs and alternatives? Why is the government locking the next generation into a high-risk technology whose time has come and gone?”
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