140 million sounds like a lot of money – but critics say a rebate program to help northern Ontario’s forestry sector cope with soaring electricity bills won’t be enough to reopen closed mills or protect jobs.
The rebate plan announced today by Premier Dalton McGuinty to help pulp and paper mills cut electricity costs by 15 per cent over three years is a good, but small, step in the right direction according to Dryden Mill Manager Norm Bush.
In a prepared press release, Bush notes that Weyerhaeuser facilities in Kenora, Ear Falls and Wawa are unaffected by the rebate program which targets pulp and paper mills in the North.
McGuinty announced in Thunder Bay that the province would provide quarterly rebates for northern pulp and paper mills that use at least 50,000 megawatt hours a year and agree to become more efficient.
The Ontario Forestry Coalition had called for a special industrial electricity rate of $45 per megawatt hour instead of the current market rate of about $70.
But McGuinty said the Liberal government took a long, hard look at regional pricing for electricity and found it wouldn’t work in the long run.
NDP Leader Howard Hampton called McGuinty’s announcement “a shameless quick fix to a serious problem.”
