TORONTO - Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak is promising to scrap two major components of the governing Liberals' green energy plan if he takes office after the Oct. 6 election.
A Conservative government would kill Ontario's "secret" deal with Samsung to manufacture components for green energy projects and end the province's feed-in tariff program, the Opposition leader said Tuesday.
Cancelling the $7-billion deal with the Korean giant and ending the feed-in tariff program will help families who are struggling with soaring electricity bills and restore competition to Ontario's energy sector, Hudak said.
"Your deal with Samsung is odious," he told Premier Dalton McGuinty in the legislature. "It was born in suspicious circumstances and it is a ripoff to seniors and families who are getting stuck with the bill."
The Tories would still honour existing contracts under the feed-in tariff program --which pays green energy producers to feed energy into the grid -- but no one else would be able to apply, Hudak's staff said.
McGuinty said it's no secret Hudak opposes renewable energy, but warned the move would also kill thousands of much-needed jobs in the province.
"I think that is reprehensible," he told the legislature. "What is he going to say to all those families who have found secure employment in an exciting, new, Ontario-based clean energy industry, Speaker? I don't know what he intends to say to them, Speaker."
The opposition parties have been fuming over the Samsung deal, saying the details have been kept secret from taxpayers who will end up footing the bill.
But the government said most of the details have been made public, except for "commercially sensitive" sections that will be released after Samsung builds new plants in Ontario.
Some details were made public in January by the New Democrats, who obtained a copy through an access-to-information request.
The agreement, first announced more than a year ago, would pay Samsung a premium to generate electricity with wind and solar projects. But all the provisions regarding payments and premiums for Samsung were deleted before its release.
The deal calls on Samsung to build four new manufacturing plants in Ontario for solar and wind farms as well as green energy projects, with specific targets of 400 megawatts of new wind power and 100 new megawatts of solar power for each of five phases of the deal.
Samsung is expected to create about 16,000 thousand new jobs in Ontario and help the province create a hub of green energy companies and expertise that can export its products around the world.
In return, Ontario guarantees the Korean company space on the province's limited transmission grid, plus premium rates for the electricity it generates.
