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Government using OPG to Mask Hydro Sins

QUEEN’S PARK – The government is misusing another Crown asset in its latest fiscal shell game, Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli charged today.

It was recently revealed OPG would be issuing up to $2 billion in debt as part of the plan to kick hydro costs past the next election, said Fedeli.

“This does nothing to fix the government’s bad contracts crisis, it only masks the consequences. It is irresponsible and risky for OPG, and Ontarians will ultimately be stuck with the tab in the form of higher hydro costs.”

OPG is supposed to be an arms-length agency, but is now being co-opted into helping the government divert enormous costs of their so-called Fair Hydro Plan from the province’s books, Fedeli said.

The Auditor General has also expressed concerns about “the government’s policy decision to borrow money to subsidize electricity bills” not being counted against net debt or the annual deficit, and stating the government’s accounting “is not in accordance with Canadian public-sector accounting standards.”

“The fact is this: OPG would never entertain adding $2 billion in debt if the government hadn’t completely botched our hydro system through scandals, waste and utter mismanagement,” said Fedeli.

“How many billion dollar band-aids does Premier Wynne expect Ontarians to stomach in order to cover up such incompetence?”

“Add this to the recent multi-billion Hydro One purchase of foreign-owned utility Avista and secret energy deal talks with Quebec, it’s even clearer that the Wynne government can’t be trusted to put the interests of the province ahead of their own.”