May 31, 2011
Ontario’s subsidy program for renewable electricity suppliers will cost Ontario electricity users about $310 a year, per household, unless the program is reformed, according to a report released today by the C.D. Howe Institute. In “Zapped: The High Cost of Ontario’s Renewable Electricity Subsidies,” authors Benjamin Dachis and Jan Carr say subsidies paid to renewable energy producers under the province’s Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) program are a costly means of reducing domestic GHG emissions and creating jobs. Each new job that the Ontario government projects the program will create will cost Ontario residents about $179,000 in subsidies, say the authors, who conclude the program should not continue in its present form.
