I have to admit, this was so ridiculous that I had to fact check. And...wow. I understand that HST is a consumption tax, but that shouldn't be applicable in this situation where he's not really taking anything from the state. Shouldn't its tax base be the money spent anyway? He didn't spend anything for his electricity. 0 multiplied by whatever should be zero. I wonder, does this happen anywhere else?
I did find this in the linked article though:
The provincial government did say it has commissioned a review of the electrical grid, which could lead to changes to the net-metering program.
...so they also probably realize how stupid this is.