Ontario ratepayers are already absorbing escalating costs from multiple electricity procurement programs. Locking in additional long-term hydro contracts without climate stress-testing will compound that burden and undermine public confidence in the electricity system.
The Northern Hydro Program is being advanced as a routine contract extension. In reality, it locks ratepayers into decades-long payment obligations for climate-vulnerable infrastructure, without contractual safeguards if freshwater availability declines and facilities cannot perform as assumed. At the same time, long-term demand forecasts have been significantly revised upward in a short period, and those inflated assumptions are now being used to justify cascading commitments across hydropower, nuclear, SMRs, and major transmission projects.