Rural Ontario hydro users hoping for deliverance from high bills

Toronto resident Nick Pemberton used $1.30 worth of electricity at his Muskoka cottage in the fall — and paid Hydro One $82.53 to deliver it.

“It’s not a particularly overwhelming bill. It’s just silly,” says Pemberton, a computer programmer who stressed he is not looking for sympathy.

The sins of the past are catching up to Premier Wynne

Can the Ontario Liberals sink any lower?

The party is under investigation already by the Ontario Provincial Police over allegations that it destroyed files related to the cancellation of two gas plant projects during the 2011 provincial election. Two former aides to former premier Dalton McGuinty have been formally charged. Now the Ottawa Citizen is reporting that the OPP is launching a second investigation — into the alleged destruction of documents related to the cancellation of a wind farm project.

It’s not too late to nix disastrous Hydro One sell-off

Last week, Stephen LeClair, Ontario’s independent Financial Accountability Officer, untangled months of spin and confusion to reveal the truth about the provincial government’s sale of Hydro One.

It’s a terrible deal for Ontario.

He compared two approaches to financing infrastructure. In the first, the government would borrow money, an approach that Justin Trudeau advocated during his successful election campaign. In the second, the government would sell public assets.

‘It’s going,’ Wynne says of Hydro One sale despite watchdog warning

Premier Kathleen Wynne is sticking to her plan to sell off Hydro One to bankroll transportation infrastructure despite a damaging report to the legislature from the budget watchdog.

“It’s going,” Wynne said firmly on Thursday in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

As first disclosed by the Star, Stephen LeClair, the recently appointed financial accountability officer, warned Thursday the province will be in even “worse” shape after the sale of the Crown utility.

Kathleen Wynne defends paying $2.5M for union negotiating expenses

Premier Kathleen Wynne says giving teacher unions millions of taxpayer dollars for negotiating contracts with the province is just the cost of doing business.

Wynne told the Star Friday she doesn’t like the idea or the optics of turning over $2.5 million — no receipts required — to cover the unions’ expenses for things like hotel rooms and so on but says that’s the way it’s done, even in the private sector.

“I understand that in isolation that’s a big number . . . but there is a cost associated with getting those agreements,” said Wynne in a wide-ranging interview.

Wynne calls proposed Ontario pension plan ‘right thing to do’

Premier Kathleen Wynne is standing firm on bringing in a made-in-Ontario pension in the face of widespread criticism.

After details for the proposed Ontario Retirement Pension Plan ‎(ORPP) were revealed Tuesday, Wynne said something has to be done for the two-thirds of workers in the province who don’t have a workplace pension.

Wynne Makes Historical Jab Against Harper During Liberal Campaign Event

TORONTO — Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne continued to weigh in on the federal election campaign Saturday, this time reaching into the history books to attack Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Wynne compared the Conservative leader to Canada's first prime minister, implying that the transcontinental railway never would have been built if Harper had been in charge back then.

Wynne flexes Ontario’s electoral muscle, calls for defeat of Harper government

OTTAWA - Kathleen Wynne wasted no time Sunday flexing Ontario's electoral muscle, wading into the federal election on Day 1 of the marathon campaign to call for the defeat of Stephen Harper's Conservative government.

The Liberal premier of Ontario — home to more than one third of the 338 seats up for grabs on Oct. 19 — said Canada needs to replace Harper with a prime minister who will work collaboratively with the provinces.

"I have said for some time and I will continue to say that we really need a change," Wynne said in a phone interview.

Kathleen Wynne: Please refuse 'honour' from Israel lobby group

On May 4, individuals representing Independent Jewish Voices -- Canada,  Women in Solidarity with Palestine, Dykes and Trans People for Palestine, and Palestine House sent a very similar letter to this one to Premier Kathleen Wynne. In that letter, we requested a meeting with Premier Wynne to discuss this issue further. After waiting nearly four weeks for a response, we decided to publish a letter publicly, with additional support from Palestine solidarity organizations active in Ontario. 

Kathleen Wynne: Hydro One Will Face Oversight After Partial Sale

WASHINGTON - Ontario's premier delivered the kind of message visiting Canadian politicians don't often bring to the U.S. capital — and she quipped about it during a speech Tuesday.

Kathleen Wynne subtly drew attention to a difference between her message and what Washington audiences have come to expect during visits from Canada's federal government.

"You may be conditioned to expect a Canadian politician to come to Washington and talk mostly about the Keystone pipeline," Wynne told an audience that included current and former diplomats, lobby groups, and representatives from the U.S. Congress and administration.

Kathleen Wynne Misleading Public About Hydro One Plans: NDP

TORONTO - Ontario's Liberal government is accused of intentionally misleading people about its plans to privatize Hydro One to raise billions of dollars for public transit.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says Premier Kathleen Wynne does not have a mandate to sell the giant electricity transmission utility because the Liberals never raised the idea during last year's election campaign.

Premier Kathleen Wynne's leadership highlights Harper's lack of it

The Globe and Mail story is short and simple  – "Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is preparing to bring in a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emissions, an ambitious move that could amount to the nation’s single largest salvo in the battle against global warming".

Ah, but it gets more complicated. There's more than one way to skin a cat, the most prominent being "cap and trade", or a "carbon tax". In British Columbia we've feebly chosen a halfhearted carbon tax.

PM has time for John Tory but not premier

TORONTO - Toronto's newly elected mayor says he had a private meeting with Stephen Harper on Thursday, the same day the premier of Ontario publicly complained she hasn't had a chance to meet with the prime minister in over a year.

John Tory — a former Ontario Conservative leader — said Friday he sat down with Harper for a brief meeting at Toronto's Pearson International Airport.

Perhaps it’s no mystery why PM Harper would pass up on meeting with Kathleen Wynne

A spectre is haunting Canada, a growing crisis that left unaddressed could tear this country apart. The questions it raises go to the heart of our existence together as a nation; the issues it touches are fundamental, yet pregnant with ambiguity.

I speak, of course, of the prime minister’s failure to meet with the premier of Ontario. For, like, a year. As an exclusive front-page investigation by the Toronto Star revealed Friday, “Prime Minister Stephen Harper has spent more time with Russian President Vladimir Putin this year than Premier Kathleen Wynne.”

Harper’s on thin ice snubbing the premier of Ontario

In December 2013, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne had a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Parliament Hill to discuss plans to build infrastructure to allow miners to exploit the Ring of Fire mineral fields north of Thunder Bay.

Both sides said that the meeting went well, but the next day, Wynne complained to reporters that Harper wouldn’t agree to her plan to expand the Canada Pension Plan.

Wynne blasts Oliver over infrastructure funds

TORONTO - Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is firing back at federal Finance Minister Joe Oliver, accusing him of playing the "blame game" on infrastructure funding.

Oliver accused the Ontario government on Monday of causing delays in Ottawa's plan to spend nearly $11 billion on infrastructure by not providing a list of projects the province wants to see funded.

But during a speech today to a conference on public-private partnerships, Wynne said Oliver's "rhetorical enthusiasm does not build bridges or ease congestion."

Wynne: Harper's Missing, Murdered Aboriginal Women Comments 'Outrageous'

TORONTO - Prime Minister Stephen Harper is wrong in saying that police investigations, not a national inquiry, are the best way to deal with crimes involving missing and murdered aboriginal women, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said Friday.

"For Stephen Harper to say that there's not a systemic aspect to this, I think is just — I think it's outrageous quite frankly," she said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

All the provinces and territories endorsed calls for a national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women when they gathered last year for the Council of the Federation conference. They'll meet up again next week in Charlottetown, P.E.I.

Liberals Take Ontario Election 2014 With Majority Win

TORONTO - Kathleen Wynne powered Ontario's minority Liberals past a legacy of scandal Thursday, staving off aggressive assaults from the Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats for an unexpected majority win and a fourth straight mandate.

Despite a hard-fought campaign rife with accusations of corruption and incompetence, jaundiced voters gave Wynne's government a fresh chance, making her the province's first elected female premier.

Kathleen Wynne says Stephen Harper ‘smirked’ and said people should save for their own retirement

KITCHENER—Prime Minister Stephen Harper “smirked” and told Kathleen Wynne in a private meeting that Canadians need to save for their own retirement because‎ it’s not up to government to look after them, the Star has learned.

In a 45-minute meeting in Harper’s Centre Block office on Parliament Hill on Dec. 5‎, he apparently said his Conservative government has given people the ability to fend for themselves so there is no need to bolster the Canada Pension Plan.

Kathleen Wynne: Economic Crisis Coming If No Action On Pensions

TORONTO - Canada is headed for a "huge economic crisis" if the provinces and federal government don't take action now to improve retirement incomes, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne warned Tuesday.

"One of our fundamental priorities is retirement income security, especially for the middle class," Wynne told a business audience in Toronto.

"People are not saving enough for retirement and if we let this go unchecked we're going to face a huge economic crisis."