2003-07-20

I would like to thank Donald Jones for pointing out that the NDP does not think nuclear power is a viable option. Apart from being horrendously expensive, as Eves is finding out, there are still no safe ways of disposing of the spent fuel. Decommissioning old plants only adds to their outrageous total life-cycle cost. We are proud to have stopped the building of new nuclear plants in Ontario.

He's wrong however in believing that it was the shutdown of older plants that led to the power crisis in Ontario. The Tories closed those plants late in 1997 due to safety concerns arising from their age. They had been out of operation for years before we ran into shortages. As In California, it was the market system, not lack of power, which caused the crisis.

Now the taxpayers are on the hook for billions of dollars in stop-gap measures because the Harris/Eves Tories failed to implement a workable conservation strategy. This appears to be mismanagement on a colossal scale. If so, is simply booting the Tories out of office sufficient?

Gary Dale, Provincial NDP Candidate
Scarborough East