by Peter Tabuns, MPP for Toronto-Danforth
April 16, 2024

Our society cannot live without electricity – it powers our homes, some of our vehicles and our myriad of electronic devices.

But what we really need is affordable electricity.

In these times of high fuel, grocery, housing and transportation costs, it is my firm belief that the two most effective ways to stabilize electricity bills and make it affordable are by increasing the use of distributed energy resources and supporting deep, full building, retrofits.

In an attempt to get us there, I, and three of my colleagues, MPPs Dolly Begum (Scarborough-Southwest), Jessica Bell (University-Rosedale) and Chandra Pasma (Ottawa-West Nepean) introduced a Private Members Bill last month that we believe will help to get us to affordable energy for all Ontarians.

Unfortunately the bill was defeated in the Legislature, but I still want to share some of the details of this bill, because I believe the ideas contained in this bill take us down the correct path to affordable electricity.

Bill 172, An Act to improve energy affordability through distributed energy resources and deep retrofits, would have, in part, given the government the authority to set up an independent agency, Affordable Energy Ontario.

This independent agency would have had the ability to promote and manage the financing of home energy retrofits, including the installation of heat pumps. And more broadly, this agency could develop small-scale energy distribution within neighbourhoods through something call net metering.

Net metering, or rather community net metering is a system in which excess electricity generated on site may be sent to the grid for a credit that can be shared by multiple participating residents. Think of a small solar farm in a vacant lot with the power sold into the grid and the revenue shared by the neighbours.

Numerous studies have shown that a really thorough or deep retrofit can reduce a home’s energy needs by 60%. Also, increasingly studies are showing that installing things like solar panels on homes and in neighbourhoods can give real cuts to peoples’ energy bills.

This bill would have given Ontarians real affordable electricity.

Now is the time for the Ford government to get serious about Ontario’s energy future and implement a plan for sustainable, affordable, and reliable electricity to be accessible for all Ontarians.

While the measures in the bill are new ideas to Ontario, deep retrofits and community energy generation are increasingly part of the energy solutions in Europe and even in the United States. Recently Nova Scotia announced a Community Solar Program.

I have hope that we can still make inroads with the ideas that were outlined in the private members bill, but would really like to hear from you on this.

Please take a few minutes to answer a couple of questions on this bill by using this link.

Thank you for your time.

P.S. Here is a link to the bill https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-43/session-1/bill-172
P.P.S. Here is a link to the Debate on this Private Members’ Bill https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-GCZCKQZMs

Photo by wd toro 🇲🇨 on Unsplash