The challenge of phasing out coal in Alberta is, I think, a little bit harder than Ontario's challenge. Ontario had more coal capacity to phase out, but it was a smaller percentage of their overall generation portfolio. In Alberta we are dealing with three private companies that own coal generation as well, where in Ontario they were provincially owned.
In terms of phasing out coal and implementing more renewables, we've had to make adjustments to our market. We are adding a capacity market to go along with our energy and ancillary services markets, and we value the competition that comes with the market framework to drive the lowest cost, whether it's the cost of renewables, which are reducing over time and will become economic.... If storage is added to that mix, it helps balance the variability and it becomes economic. We would see a natural evolution to those technologies. In terms of the coal phase-out, as the provincial government has chosen to implement a tax to encourage the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, we see that as an economic signal as well.
For sure, Alberta is blessed—along with B.C., northeast B.C. in particular—with a lot of natural gas resources. It is a fossil fuel, but at 50% fewer emissions as compared to coal. We see that natural gas generation will provide the baseload energy and some of the ramping to go along with the renewable energy that we get.
As I said in my opening statement, accessing renewable in the form of hydroelectricity from the west, B.C., and on into the Pacific northwest, and/or use of the hydro reservoirs as storage, can go along with the provincial programs to lower greenhouse gases over time, but our preference is to see that happen in an economic fashion to help keep the cost to ratepayers as low as possible.