Doug Ford government wants new gas plants to boost Ontario's electricity system

Premier Doug Ford's government is preparing to expand gas-fired power plants in Ontario, a move critics say will make the province's electricity system dirtier and could eventually leave taxpayers on the hook. 

The province is currently soliciting bids for additional gas-fired electricity generation, which means either new gas plants get built or existing gas plants get expanded. 

It's poised to be Ontario's biggest increase in the gas-fired power supply in more than a decade, since the previous Liberal government scrapped two gas plants, in Mississauga and Oakville, at a cost the auditor general pegged at around $1 billion. 

Ford's energy minister, Todd Smith, says Ontario needs gas plants now to help meet an expected surge in demand for electricity and to provide power while some units of the province's nuclear stations are down for refurbishment. 

"It's really important to have natural gas as an insurance policy to be there to keep the lights on and provide the reliability that we need," Smith said in an interview. 

"We need to have natural gas for the short term, especially to get us through these refurbishments."

The portion of Ontario's electricity supply that comes from natural gas matters not just for the environment but also for the province's economy. Manufacturing companies are increasingly looking for a power supply that emits as little carbon dioxide as possible. 

Ford has been touting the province's "clean energy advantage" as one of the key reasons Volkswagen chose Ontario for a $7-billion electric vehicle battery plant. 

Increasing the amount of gas-fired generation in the electricity system puts Ontario's ability to attract such investments at risk, says Evan Pivnick, program manager with Clean Energy Canada, a think tank. 

"Building new natural gas (power plants) in Ontario today should be seen as an absolute last resort for meeting our energy needs," said Pivnick in an interview. 

Ontario's electricity system has among the lowest rates of CO2 emissions in North America, with roughly half of the annual supply provided by nuclear power, one-quarter from hydro dams, and one-tenth from wind turbines. 

However, Ontario's gas plants have produced a growing amount of electricity in recent years and that trend would continue if new gas plants are built. 

In 2017, gas- and oil-fired generation provided just four per cent of Ontario's electricity supply, according to figures from the provincial agency that manages the grid, the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO). 

By 2022, that figure reached 10.4 per cent.