Canada needs regulated energy market

[maplesyrup]

Electricity: learning from the shocks

But if Canadians want to avoid having their lights go out on hot summer days, we would do well to take a hard look beyond the spectacle and focus on the new energy rules that Enron helped write south of the border. It would also be a good idea to think about a regulated power system based on long-term planning instead of entrusting our electricity future to the whims of the market.

The deregulated free-market regime created exciting opportunities for enormous profits to be made from the manipulation of markets for essential utility services such as electricity. And they are coming to Canada, as the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission continues to push Canadian utilities to deregulate in order to gain access to the U.S. market.

Canadian governments needs to severely step in here. This idea that unregulated markets are good for the average person are a myth.

Time for Canadians to wake up and smell the flowers.

[Hugo]

Rubbish. State-run power in Ontario has been an unmitigated disaster - the blackout, more blackouts to come, the Pickering black-hole of taxpayer cash... it goes on.

Look at California. Government has interfered in power generation and as a result they have some pretty enormous power problems.

Look at Great Britain. Since their power industry was privatised they have had more reliable delivery and much cheaper prices. My entire family lives there, trust me. My mother, who lives in rural Wales in a village of about 2,700 people, pays half what I do for power in the largest city in the Niagara region - and she has less blackouts.

Government has proven time and time again that it has no business in business. Some people (you) never learn that. Government involvement in industry guarantees you a more expensive and shoddier product and fewer, if any, consumer rights.

And if you talk about planning for the future, tell me, what Ontario authority was responsible for failing to invest in new equipment to the extent that it caused a massive blackout? Was it... the government? Why, yes, it was.

[maplesyrup]

We saw what happened in California with an unregulated market. No thanks pal.

Unfortunately business is way too corrupt to be left on their own. Them's the facts. All you have to do is read the business section of any paper any day. Business needs to be keep on a very short leash.

They have become predictable spectacles, these ritual parades of men in fine suits and handcuffs. The "perp walks" are staged every time an accused corporate criminal is indicted for fraud, conspiracy, embezzlement or some other form of malfeasance.

Last week saw former Enron chief executive officer Kenneth Lay being led through Houston's stifling heat into a courtroom amid much head-shaking about greed. Mere mention of Mr. Lay's company elicits knowing nods, for the Enron brand has -- for good reason -- become synonymous with seemingly pervasive business swindles. The spectacle seems to promise justice and a crackdown on what is delicately called "white collar" crime.

[Hugo]

We saw what happened in California with an unregulated market.

It was regulated. The Californian legislature vetoed all new power plant construction for ten years. Surprise surprise, demand exceeded supply and they had rolling blackouts and a hole they couldn't climb out of.

Unfortunately business is way too corrupt to be left on their own.

I suppose you missed all the scandals and waste our government is/was mired in. I'd say that government is way to be corrupt to be left on its own. What I'm in favour of is more economic freedom, to leave the lives of Canadian citizens more up to them and less up to the government. You're against that - unfathomably.

[Bakunin]

In quebec we have hydro quebec since about 40 years and it works pretty well.

http://www.hydroquebec.com/residentiel/com...ison/index.html

The quebec government gets some billions from them and we have low price and we export to the US. the same price no matter where you live. The installation are of good quality and we aquire expertise on electricity domains. Its also help the economy since big industry who need power come here.

thats the good thing and here is the bad thing.

Well for the moment, one of the reason people get angry at charest is because he wants to approve a hydro quebec plan to build a thermique central that would pollute a lot while we have the biggest eolien potential in America. The other problem is that we want to create big electricity project but we keep using the profit to pay social program.

[Cartman]

I wonder if Alberta would have such a strong energy base if fed $$ were not pumped into the Province's oil industry to begin with?

[maplesyrup]

What I am against is the rich and powerful bullying the poor and less priviledged. And that is what government is for - to protect the weaker elements in society from the abuses of the business industry.

That's why charity is horseshit. It depends on the whims of the rich. Screw that. The rich are greedy, and they need some controls to prevent excesses.

Probably the main issue in this country is our broken tax system. It needs to be repaired, with a solid progressive tax structure, all the tax loopholes cancelled, and the tax accountants, lawyers and industry retired.

There is no question there are problems with government. Perhaps a way to create some fairness in the system is to not allow a child of a civil servant to work as a civil servant. That way nepotism could be reduced, why is probably the major problem with the system.

[Bro]

John Manley,a once popular chretienite,said that gov. must absolutely get of the running of public utilities.

Damn it ,he said this after he left the party,so I don't know if he meant this,or still using party line.

What do the new and improved[lol]liberal puppies say?

[Hugo]

I am against is the rich and powerful bullying the poor and less priviledged. And that is what government is for...

No, that is what rights and freedoms are for. When government itself abrogates rights and freedoms, in this case economic freedoms, it becomes an enemy of the principles you describe above.

And everything else you have said is pure partisan speculation without evidence or logical argument. As such it doesn't warrant a response.