By James G. Hynes
A recent issue of Corporate Knights, which bills itself as "the magazine for clean capitalism," carried an article bemoaning the lack of action to expand the electrical infrastructure of Canada's most-populated region. And what do you suppose the article says would be the key to shifting a big chunk of our fossil-fuel driven transportation systems over to electricity? You guessed it: a high-speed rail (HSR) line through the Quebec City-Windsor corridor. We've definitely heard this one before, but the case for it now seems more compelling than ever. It's been studied to death by governments, with another report due any day now, and it's also been the subject of elaborate proposals from Bombardier, which happens to be the world's leading manufacturer of HSR equipment. The proposed line would shift vast amounts of freight and passenger traffic from emission-spewing cars, trucks and planes to fast, efficient trains running mainly on renewable hydroelectric power. At the same time, it would also create a major transmission link between the now tenuously-connected Ontario and Quebec power grids, encouraging more of Quebec's surplus hydro power to flow westward, rather than south into New England. A commitment along these lines would also take Ontario out of the awkward position it's now in with regard to its electrical future. New nuclear facilities are mooted as the answer, but Ontario Power Generation (OPG) has balked at the price quoted by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) for a new and unproven reactor design, and no-one else has come forward with a better deal. Even if the price was right, you can't blame OPG for being reluctant to take another waltz with AECL, a vampire of a company that has been sucking blood from the federal government for half a century. The main reason Ontario is out shopping for new nuclear plants now is because the budget-busting ones they've got have proved to be a lot less durable than AECL said they would be. And if that isn't sufficient reason to view AECL's promises with a skeptical eye, how about the fact that the federal government is finally trying to unload all or most of the company? As any reasonable person might expect, the feds have been underwhelmed with offers to take AECL's pie-in-the-sky reactor business off their hands. All they've got are low-ball bids for marginally profitable operations maintaining and refurbishing existing reactors. So if OPG won't dance, AECL is probably, finally, at long last out of luck. They should have a public ceremony, and let Jim Flaherty drive a wooden stake through the corporate seal. But where does that leave OPG? Will this situation persuade them to look eastward for hydroelectric solutions, as Quebec's exportable surplus continues to grow? Probably not. After all, if common sense and a bit of visionary courage were the driving forces behind policy-making in Toronto, Ottawa and Quebec City, this would have happened years ago, and an HSR link from Montreal through Ottawa to Toronto might be nearing completion about now. Instead, the concept is about to be honoured by another report recommending it, which will then be ignored in what has become the traditional manner, that is, we all say it's a good idea, and then get back in our cars to join the traffic jam on the 401. Click here to read more of Jim Hynes on the compelling case for Canadian high speed rail.