UCP’s coal hypocrisy costing us now more than ever

Electricity prices in Alberta are out of control.

According to the Statistics Canada inflation report released Aug. 15th, our province’s electricity prices hit an all-time high in July, up a whopping 128 per cent year-over-year.

Attempts to explain the situation away as the side effect of a hot, dry summer do not pass the smell test. Yes, a hot summer has played a role in rising demand, as has the province’s immigration-driven population increase of more than 200,000 people. But compounding these factors has been one of the worst public policy decisions of the past 20 years – the decision to completely abandon coal-fired electricity.

For generations, Alberta has greatly benefitted from coal power. 

It was, simply put, the most affordable, reliable electricity source available to us. Not only did this abundant natural resource provide Alberta with a competitive advantage over heavily subsidized hydro and nuclear electricity generation options utilized in eastern Canada, but it created more jobs per unit of electricity generated than any other source.

Things started to go sideways in 2015. Under Premier Notley, Alberta committed not only to complying with the federal government’s 2030 deadline for phasing out coal generation but took things a step further with an accelerated timetable. With more than half of Alberta’s electrical generation coming from coal at the time, the NDP sought to shut down even the most modern and cleanest burning facilities, at a cost of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.

The impact of these decisions were felt most acutely in rural communities like Hanna, Keephills, and Forestburg, communities that were already struggling in Alberta’s recession. 

In response, the United Conservative Party campaigned on minimizing the pain for coal communities. In the lead-up to the 2019 election, as a candidate for the UCP, I was promised that “We will stop the NDP's accelerated shutdown of coal-fired plants. We support Alberta's coal industry, and the jobs and communities that depend on it.”

Just days before the 2019 election campaign formally began, UCP leader Jason Kenney stated, “I think not only should we, we will repeal of the regulations and laws adopted by the NDP shutting down prematurely our coal-fired electricity plants, which will increase our power prices.”

Of course, once elected, these promises were immediately broken. Instead of ending Notley’s accelerated coal phase-out, the UCP embraced it. Even with the thousands of rural job losses and record-high electricity prices, the UCP government continues to brag about the fact that coal power will be fully eliminated this year, seven years ahead of federal requirements.

Jason Kenney may be gone, but Albertans are still paying the bill for this massive mistake. And if you think Alberta’s families are struggling to pay for electricity now, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Rather than fix the problem, under Danielle Smith the UCP government is currently moving ahead with plans to make electricity even more unaffordable, by pledging a “Net Zero” electric grid by 2050. Make no mistake, this plan will prove just as costly as Justin Trudeau’s plan for a Net Zero grid by 2035, just phased in over a long-time frame. Meanwhile, Alberta’s global competitors like China continue to construct new coal-fired power plants at a record pace, many of them being fueled by coal that is mined in BC and Alberta. 

Thanks to UCP’s hypocrisy, it seems our province is doomed to the same fate as those European countries that abandoned coal in favor of other more expensive and unreliable sources. 

I fear the true cost to our families and communities will be shocking.