Yesterday, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture membership elected Don McCabe as president. Mr. McCabe was one of the architects of Ontario’s Green Energy and Green Economy Act, the main driver of the rampant price increases now hitting Ontario electricity consumers, including farmers.

In 2011, the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association awarded its Rural Community Power Leader Award to Mr. McCabe. The award recognized McCabe for the role he played in the Ontario Green Energy Act Alliance, the organizing body of the lobbyist campaign behind the creation of the Green Energy Act.

Here is an example of Mr. McCabe endorsing the Green Energy Act.

Here is an example of Mr. McCabe getting an earful from farmers and other rural folks who think McCabe’s advocacy for the Ontario Liberal government’s energy energy policies was a mistake.

Farmers are not the only one pushing to increase their own power rates.

One of the lobbyists behind the Wynne government’s initiative to lower the size threshold (from 5 MW of demand to 3 MW) for participation in a cost-shifting program that shifts Global Adjustment costs from big users to smaller consumers is an outfit called the “Coalition of Ontario Manufacturers for Competitive Industrial Power Rates”. The membership of this coalition includes several trade associations including the Kawartha Manufacturers Association, the Northumberland Manufacturers Association, the Ontario Forest Industries Association, the Paper Packaging Canada, and the Quinte Manufacturers Association. All the smaller manufacturers within these trade associations are among the consumers now picking up a bigger share of the Global Adjustment due to their own lobbying activities.