"We'd like to stay in Ontario, but we are reaching a breaking point"
“The price of electricity in Ontario is getting higher and higher every month,” George Dekker, project manager for Mucci Farms, said Monday. “It has forced us to look at other jurisdictions which have much more reasonable rates.”
The family-owned and operated company has been in business since 1963 and owns more than 400 acres of farmland across Ontario. It was initially poised to expand in Kingsville, where it already has 180 acres of greenhouses, Dekker said.
“Obviously we would like to stay in Ontario — that’s where our home base is — but we are reaching a breaking point,” he said.
“Rates keep going up every year to the point where it’s no longer sustainable to build new operations in Ontario.”
Escalating hydro costs are “the No. 1 issue facing business in not only Windsor and Essex County, but across Ontario,” said Matt Marchand, CEO for the local chamber of commerce.
“The rates have gone up two or threefold in the last 10 to 15 years,” he said. “Government has to find ways at putting the brakes on this and then look at getting electricity costs back down.”
Read more at the Windsor Star