On Monday April 19, Premier Dalton McGuinty made a special announcement on conservation. He confirmed the province's target of a 5% reduction in electricity consumption by 2007 and highlighted elements of the government's plan

• Creating an Ontario Power Authority that will include a Conservation Secretariat led by a Chief Conservation Officer
• Launching a public education and outreach campaign, including town hall meetings, to encourage conservation
• Setting aggressive targets to put smart meters into every home by 2010, with an interim target of 800,000 meters in place by 2007 -- together with more flexible pricing, this would allow Ontarians to save money if they run appliances in off-peak hours
• Developing regulations to provide provincewide access to net metering, which enables homeowners and businesses generating renewable electricity to receive credit for the excess energy they produce
• Allowing local distribution companies to begin investing approximately $225 million for local, community-based conservation programs
• Creating incentives for local distribution companies and Hydro One to reduce expensive, wasteful "system loss" that can occur when transmitting electricity to consumers.

You may recall that, following the August 2003 blackout, the Conservation Council proposed a four point energy conservation action plan

1. Price energy to promote conservation

2. Create an Ontario Green Energy and Conservation Fund

3. Support community-based conservation outreach and education campaigns.

4. Strengthen standards for green energy and conservation.

Here's a quick overview of where things stand with the recent announcements

No announcements have been made to date about any form of subsidy for conservation or renewable power. Our view was that the surcharge on electricity for overconsumption should be applied directly to subsidies and support programs for conservation and renewable energy. The current surcharge for overconsumption (see above) is being used to subsidize the overall cost of electricity and not to support conservation.

In addition, the proposal to put 800,000 smart meters in homes by 2007 will cost between $100 and $400 per home (or $80 million to $320 million). This cost will be passed on to the homeowner, with no immediate benefit in reduced consumption. A similar $100 investment per home would give each homeowner 10 compact fluorescent bulbs and an immediate reduction of up to 70 kWh per month (or 10% of the average residential consumption rate).

Future prospects Without a clear plan for community engagement, the education and outreach strategy will resort to the standard advertising campaign and mailer to every household approach. On the other hand, if Ontario's conservation organizations and community leaders can come up with cost effective proposals for community-oriented outreach and engagement, there is a strong potential to develop a truly effective conservation movement in Ontario.