http://www.torontosun.com/2015/12/29/wynnes-new-year-hydro-price-shock
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This Friday, electricity bills for the average Ontario household are going up by another $120 per year.
That’s the net result of the latest hocus pocus by Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government.
While the hated debt retirement charge — which should have been removed years ago — is finally being deep-sixed, saving the average household $67.20 per year, the province is also ending its 10% clean energy benefit subsidy, which will see bills rise by $180 a year on average.
Throw in another $11-per-year charge on all hydro consumers to subsidize rates for low-income individuals and families who apply and qualify for a new government program, and it works out to a $120 annual hike for average consumers.
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I am speechless.
But that’s just on the first day of 2016 and doesn’t include, for example, looming price hikes by Toronto Hydro.
Further unacceptable rate hikes are inevitable due to the Liberals’ disastrous management of the province’s electricity system and their continuing expansion of expensive, unreliable, inefficient and unneeded wind and solar power.
Neither wind nor solar was needed to replace coal-fired electricity, which the Liberals did with nuclear power and natural gas.
Two Ontario auditors general — Bonnie Lysyk and her predecessor, Jim McCarter — have spent years ripping apart Liberal claims of competence on the hydro file, relentlessly exposing their renewable energy schemes as a multi-billion-dollar train wreck.
Due to Liberal incompetence, hydro bills skyrocketed 70% between 2008 and 2014 alone, with no end in sight.
Meanwhile power outages are increasing in frequency and lasting longer because Hydro One isn’t replacing $4.5 billion worth of transmission assets “that have exceeded their planned useful service life”.
The Liberals’ answer is to sell 60% of Hydro One to the private sector for a quick cash fix, a move which will put the provincial utility beyond the scrutiny of the auditor general.
Meanwhile, the Liberals stumble on in a state of denial, seemingly oblivious to the mess they’ve made of Ontario’s electricity system, where skyrocketing rates are driving out businesses and throwing more and more families into fuel poverty.
Clearly, Wynne’s government is out of
ideas on how to fix the disaster the
Liberals created.
Ontarians can only hope it will soon be out of time, as well.
-------------------------------------------------
This Friday, electricity bills for the average Ontario household are going up by another $120 per year.
That’s the net result of the latest hocus pocus by Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government.
While the hated debt retirement charge — which should have been removed years ago — is finally being deep-sixed, saving the average household $67.20 per year, the province is also ending its 10% clean energy benefit subsidy, which will see bills rise by $180 a year on average.
Throw in another $11-per-year charge on all hydro consumers to subsidize rates for low-income individuals and families who apply and qualify for a new government program, and it works out to a $120 annual hike for average consumers.
-------------------------------
I am speechless.
But that’s just on the first day of 2016 and doesn’t include, for example, looming price hikes by Toronto Hydro.
Further unacceptable rate hikes are inevitable due to the Liberals’ disastrous management of the province’s electricity system and their continuing expansion of expensive, unreliable, inefficient and unneeded wind and solar power.
Neither wind nor solar was needed to replace coal-fired electricity, which the Liberals did with nuclear power and natural gas.
Two Ontario auditors general — Bonnie Lysyk and her predecessor, Jim McCarter — have spent years ripping apart Liberal claims of competence on the hydro file, relentlessly exposing their renewable energy schemes as a multi-billion-dollar train wreck.
Due to Liberal incompetence, hydro bills skyrocketed 70% between 2008 and 2014 alone, with no end in sight.
Meanwhile power outages are increasing in frequency and lasting longer because Hydro One isn’t replacing $4.5 billion worth of transmission assets “that have exceeded their planned useful service life”.
The Liberals’ answer is to sell 60% of Hydro One to the private sector for a quick cash fix, a move which will put the provincial utility beyond the scrutiny of the auditor general.
Meanwhile, the Liberals stumble on in a state of denial, seemingly oblivious to the mess they’ve made of Ontario’s electricity system, where skyrocketing rates are driving out businesses and throwing more and more families into fuel poverty.
Clearly, Wynne’s government is out of
ideas on how to fix the disaster the
Liberals created.
Ontarians can only hope it will soon be out of time, as well.
