By Angela Bischoff, Director Ontario Clean Air Alliance
January 12th, 2026
BURLINGTON, ON
If you thought life was going to get more affordable, we have some very bad news. To kick off the New Year, Ontario Power Generation (OPG) has applied to the Ontario Energy Board for a whopping 72.6% increase in the price it is paid for nuclear power.
Darlington Nuclear Power Station
OPG says it needs to almost double what it charges for power from its nuclear plants starting in 2027 to pay for building new reactors at the Darlington Station and to rebuild the long-past-its-prime Pickering Nuclear Station.
This application really confirms that these projects are among the most expensive ways to meet our need for electricity. We could expand solar, wind and storage at a fraction of the cost and avoid seeing our power bills go through the roof.
But the Ford government is pushing forward with a laundry list of insanely expensive nuclear projects instead – with no real idea what these projects will cost. And that is going to cost you, with:
· sharply rising electricity bills;
· years of burning polluting fossil fuels to fill the gap while these projects get built;
· needlessly expensive electricity supply that deters businesses from locating or expanding in Ontario.
This 72.6% increase will be on top of the November 2025 residential electricity rate increase of 29% due to rising nuclear costs. A good chunk of last year’s rate increase was deliberately buried in tax bills by the Ford government, but you’re still paying for it.
Remember when Doug Ford promised he was going to cut hydro rates by 12%? Notice he never talks about that anymore.
The Premier’s buddies in the nuclear and gas industries may like his plan for an old school electricity system built around eye wateringly expensive mega projects. But the people of Ontario are now in for some serious sticker shock.
This is really the tip of a very big iceberg coming straight at your household budget.
Please ask our provincial leaders whether they will support a much lower cost plan for offshore wind, rooftop and parking lot solar, widely distributed storage and deep efficiency instead of expensive nuclear.
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Hello I am the son of the Darlington OPG’s power plant FLM or floor manager my dad manages all the Candu reactors at Darlingtons nuclear facility and I must say this news report is among one of the most stupid I’ve ever seen. First of all your facts are completely off as wind and solar power are extremely expensive and require a massive amount of power input to have a little bit of output and would end up providing an unreliable source of electricity as Canada is a country of limited sun and we would end up wasting money because the new year of 2026 is met with a bunch more electrical applications that requires almost a gigawatt more power and for solar to achieve this it would require approximately 850 megaatts to produce a Gigawatt of power at PEAK performance which Canada does not have the environment for which would end up being a more expensive and horrible cost in the future as it would barely be able to pay for itself let alone raising electricity costs even higher because us tax payers would be paying for almost a 200 billion dollar bill and as for wind power that is also in the same category as solar requiring an even bigger investment and a massive amount of prime farm land for minimal amounts of gain and maximum costs for us tax payers furthermore if you actually did your research which I highly doubt you did you would know that OPG actually provides essential Nuclear Isotopes for medical machines and applications from cobalt 60 as a sterilization to specialized isotopes that only OPG provides for the world creating a reliable form of medical cures that help get rid of things like breast cancer liver cancer pancreas cancer and more. To go even further with this OPGs nuclear power plants provide 60% of Ontario’s electrical applications which means that if we were to just stop the refurbishment at Pickerings Nuclear facility your electricity bill would raise through the roof as it creates about a Gigawatt of power which means no more electric cars and people would struggle to even power there homes as there would not be enough electricity in Canada anymore and as for the small modular reactor projects price everything good comes with a cost and I think Canadians electricity is more important than where ever else that money could be going towards as the 4 projected SMRs at Darlingtons facility will provide over 1 million homes in the Toronto region with power alone meaning minimal line loss and less cost for tax payers in the future as the power lines will not be as strained and there will not be as much line loss. Next time do your research and write with credibility, and if you are going to write about a multi billion dollar company you better hope you have your info right.
Sincerely Caelan Stewart Son of Benjamin Stewart
Just so readers are fully aware, Angela Bischoff is a long-time anti-nuclear activist and founder of “Ontario Clean Air Alliance”. Is there an independent source verifying her claim of this increase?
I have previously commented on thus blog that electricity rates would triple in the medium term. The obsession with nuclear build out will further cripple the province economically. You ain’t seen nothing yet.
The winners will be the contractors, engineering service providers and equipment builders the vast majority of which are not Canadian despite tge BS spewed by politicians. I vowed I would not buy SNC stock now Atkins Realis, Aecon or BWXT. I now have positions in two of them.
Regularly I hear Lecce talk about affordable energy and it makes me sick to the stomach. I have twice worked in this industry in commercial roles.