TORONTO - A $7-billion investment in Ontario by Samsung and state-owned Korean Power Electric Corp. will help the province become a leader in manufacturing green energy technologies that it can export to the United States and elsewhere, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Thursday.
"It's important to understand that building the green economy, green energy jobs and putting in place the Green Energy Act is not for the faint of heart," said McGuinty. "It's going to take bold steps."
Samsung will build wind and solar farms across Ontario that will generate 2,500 megawatts of power, and will also build four plants to manufacture components for green energy projects, creating about 16,000 jobs in the process.
"We're doing more than just buying a huge amount of electricity, we're doing more than just creating jobs, although creating jobs is very important," McGuinty told reporters after signing the deal, which he described as the largest of its kind in the world.
"We're trying to lay the foundation here for new economic growth in Ontario ... to build the capacity here to deliver renewable technology to the U.S. market."
The Association of Power Producers of Ontario, along with local wind and solar power producers, said they feel like they were "thrown under a bus" by the Liberal government in favour of the South Korean consortium led by Samsung.
"There was no process, no requests for proposals, it was just a one-off side deal," said association president David Butters.
"I think that's what is particularly appalling about it. It seems to offend every principle of openness and transparency and public certainty that we could think of."
Other critics of the deal said the province was giving Samsung big advantages over Canadian-based wind and solar producers, including special access to crowded transmission lines and incentives that they say amount to a huge taxpayer subsidy of a foreign multinational.
"The reality is that this company has been allowed to jump the queue ahead of everyone else with a promise to build in future," complained NDP energy critic Peter Tabuns.
"If they don't deliver on the promise, they still will have jumped the queue. I think that's a big problem for those who are interested in investing in Ontario."
The Green Party of Ontario said provincial businesses were losing out because of the transmission capacity being set aside for Samsung, "allowing a single company to jump the line and undermine community power initiatives.
"It is shocking that the Liberals would breach the trust of Ontarians with such a deal," said Green Leader Mike Schreiner.
However, McGuinty insisted there were no players in Ontario, Canada or the world who could bring as much to the table as Samsung, and said the smaller green energy producers would be able to build on, and take advantage of, the work Samsung does in the province.
Just as Ontario's economy once relied heavily on exporting cars south of the border, the Liberal government wants to do the same with green energy technology, said McGuinty.
"What we want to do is take the green energy economy in Ontario to a higher level," he said. "It can't just be about Ontario; it's got to be about making technology for the U.S."
The Progressive Conservatives want the provincial auditor general to investigate the Samsung agreement to make sure Ontario taxpayers are getting a good deal, and called it the "mother of all untendered contracts."
McGuinty called that "nonsensical," and said when Toyota wanted to build a new plant in Ontario, the government didn't insist that it bring Ford and General Motors into the deal as well.
