Ontario Energy Board hearings on the Ontario Power Authority’s 20-year plan for the province’s electrical system begin Monday, Sept. 8th.  AMPCO has led an industry partnership, the Alliance of Energy Consumers, which is arguing that the IPSP (Integrated Power System Plan) seriously underestimates the impact of the plan on prices and consumer costs.

“When the plan’s full implications for consumer prices, and thereby the Ontario economy as a whole, are so underestimated, then the fundamental merits of the plan come into question,” said Adam White, President of AMPCO.

The Alliance of Energy Consumers has submitted to the OEB several studies indicating increasing prices for both natural gas and electricity generated by natural gas-fired power plants. These higher prices would negatively affect the provincial economy and diminish future prospects for growth.

The studies, completed by the Canadian Energy Research Institute and the Centre for Spatial Economics, show that a number of important economic indicators would all be hurt by higher natural gas and electricity prices. These include such essential indicators as GDP, inflation rates, unemployment rates and government budgets.

The Alliance further concluded:

§       The negative impact of the plan would be felt hardest over the next 5 years.

§       Industries such as mining, primary metals, machinery, plastics and forestry industries will see the largest reductions in real GDP.

§       Adverse impacts will be disproportionately borne by the relatively poor, rural and Northern consumers.

The Alliance includes: AMPCO, the Ontario Mining Association, Canadian Chemical Producers Association, Cement Association of Canada (Ontario), Industrial Gas Users Association, Ontario Federation of Agriculture, Ontario Forest Industry Association and the Stone, Sand and Gravel Association of Ontario.

The submissions of the Alliance can be found on the Ontario Power Authority website: Exhibit L – Evidence of Intervenors. More information about the IPSP is available from the Ontario Power Authority.

For information:

Adam White

President

e: awhite@ampco.org

t: 416-260-0225