The Progressive Conservative government is recalling the legislature next week to impose back-to-work legislation to short circuit a power workers’ strike that would zap nearly half of Ontario’s electricity.As first revealed by the Star on Friday morning, Premier Doug Ford’s administration is acting to circumvent job action by the Power Workers’ Union (PWU) after it rejected Ontario Power Generation’s final contract offer.MPPs, who rose Dec. 6 for the winter break, will be back in the house on Monday afternoon to begin debating the legislation. It is expected to take several days to pass.But Energy Minister Greg Rickford, who raced to back to Toronto from Kenora early Friday, said the situation is very serious.“It’s about keeping the lights on for families and businesses,” Rickford said in an interview.“Forty per cent of Ontario’s electricity comes from those 10 units,” the minister said of the nuclear reactors at Darlington and Pickering.Rickford stressed the PWU is being very professional in adhering “to a critical 21-day timeline that’s required to safely wind these units down.”Still, the government was worried a stoppage by the union would lead to “rolling blackouts” over the Christmas holiday.That fear was underscored by the province’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO).“A Power Workers’ Union strike at Ontario Power Generation would put the reliability of Ontario’s electricity system at risk,” the IESO said.“The shutdown of OPG’s nuclear and hydroelectric facilities could occur in approximately three weeks,” the operator said. “At that point, Ontario would not have the generation needed to meet consumer demand and customers would begin losing power.”In a statement Thursday night, the government said “any prolonged outage caused by a job action would jeopardize electricity supply to Ont ...
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