Strange logic behind $180M Mississauga plant relocation

One hundred and eighty million dollars for four seats in the Ontario legislature. The cost per seat: roughly $45 million.

The math is as straightforward as it gets at Queen’s Park when it comes to the ultimate cost of the government’s pre-election decision to scrap a gas-powered plant in politically sensitive Liberal-held Mississauga.

And now in the post election period they want to move it to a Conservative-held riding in the southwestern Ontario riding of Lambton County, already home to an Ontario Hydro generating station.

This story begins back in Sept. 24, just days before election day on Oct. 6.

It is now clear that despite all the public and private bravado, the Liberals knew they were in trouble. They knew they were staring at a minority, or even worse, an election defeat.

What to do? Where could a quick decision make a difference?

The answer was Mississauga.

A power plant proposal there had upset a lot of people and put in jeopardy not just one Liberal, but as many as four —including current Citizenship and Immigration minister Charles Sousa – in ridings in Mississauga and Etobicoke in Toronto’s west end.

So, without campaign fanfare and not a peep from Premier Dalton McGuinty, the Liberal party sent out a simple news release on a quiet campaign Saturday afternoon.

The Mississauga plant, already under construction, would be stopped.

That decision would allow Liberal MPPs — including Sousa, who had unsuccessfully fought the project quietly inside the cabinet room — to brag that the people had been heard.

NIMBYism wins the day

What is interesting about the government’s decision is the fact that it was a "not in my backyard" attitude in the area that won the day. 

It's also interesting that the premier had made it clear in a speech in London some months before the election that at least on the issue of wind farms, that he would not hear of NIMBYism.

He stressed in the speech, which was attended by local MPP and current Energy Minister Chris Bentley, that he would refuse to cave into that kind of pressure from local residents or their local councils.

Surely then, if that hard-line attitude applied to wind farms, it must also have applied to a controversial power plant, which the province’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) said was essential to keep the lights on in the western part of Toronto.

But there was a difference and it was the election.

So what has become known as a seat saver plan among opposition members was hatched and it worked, with the Liberals holding on their seats in the area, although they were only able to form a minority.

And that brings this story to the present and, an announcement from Bentley that he was "pleased" that an agreement had been reached on the financial terms of the cost of plant’s cancellation, words that could come back to haunt him in a future Liberal leadership race or general election

The minister’s usually grim face was even more so, as he confirmed, at a hastily called news conference on Wednesday that the cost to taxpayers would $180 million.

Minister short on details

But how would the settlement be paid? Bentley didn’t know. Those are still to be worked out, he said though the options are limited.

The tab for electing those Liberal MPPs could appear on Ontarians' tax bills, their hydro bills or both.

In fairness to Bentley, he was attorney general at the time of the plant cancellation, so he was only the government’s spear-carrier this week in announcing the settlement.

Bentley told a legislative committee that he had no idea who gave the green light to stop the project. As far as he was concerned, he said, the cancellation was announced in a Liberal party news release.

That is close to an admission that neither cabinet nor caucus was involved in the decision, and that it came from the Liberal’s re-election team worried about the state of the campaign.

Bentley’s candor likely won't win him any friends in the premier’s office.

But if Bentley's goal is to someday lead the party, as whispers around Queen's Park appear to suggest, you’ve got to at least try to put some distance between yourself and a questionable decision and the even more questionable expenditure of public funds.

McGuinty, like all MPP, recites a little prayer before the start of each Question Period that he and they will make decisions "wisely and well."

That prayer should apply to the decision that led to the scrapping of the Mississauga power plant, which in turn saved Liberal seats in an election at a significant cost to taxpayers.

But it seems somebody had their fingers crossed behind their backs.