Why won't Hillier stand up for farmers?

May 15, 2014

Your editorial about Randy Hillier (May 8, 2014) pointed out that he prides himself on putting his constituents above his party. This makes me wonder why he follows the party line when it comes to solar energy and the Green Energy Act. Many farmers in Mr. Hillier's riding have solar installations on their property and get much needed income for producing green energy. The Tory party blames green energy for rising electricity rates and yet Mr. Hillier knows that electricity from solar only accounts for approximately 3% of our total output and has a miniscule over-all effect on electricity prices. In the future, refurbishing existing nuclear plants and building new ones will lead to dramatic price increases, much larger than the recent ones because nuclear provides over 50% of our electricity and nuclear costs are rising while solar costs have fallen sharply. If Mr. Hillier and the Tories form the next provincial government and carry out their promise to scrap the solar energy program, it will mean that farmers will be deprived of a good source of revenue. Why doesn't Mr. Hillier stand up for the farmers in his riding? They have shown that they are willing to invest in solar panels. Even though the price the province pays for electricity produced by solar has gone down, the cost of the panels has also gone down and farmers can still get a good return even with the lower rates. In my opinion, if Mr. Hillier is really more beholden to his constituents than to his party, then he should stand up to Mr. Hudak again so that farmers in his riding don't lose an important revenue source which will help them stay on the farm and continue to feed us.

Wolfe Erlichman