Hydro rant leads to Wynne meeting
• Libby Keenan’s Facebook rant over soaring hydro costs has prompted a face- to- face meeting with Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne on Wednesday at Queen’s Park.
Keenan wrote Wynne an open letter on social media detailing the struggle to keep her Amherstburg horse farm financially afloat.
She noted a recent hydro bill of almost $600, four times higher than bills of previous years for Sunhall Equestrian Centre.
“My heating and hydro costs are a much higher cost than my mortgage was,” she wrote while sipping a coffee on Jan. 6. “Something in me that morning decided I’m going to fix Ontario Hydro.”
She was fuelled by news coverage of the $ 4- million annual compensation going to Hydro One CEO Mayo Schmidt.
Keenan quoted a song familiar to many school-aged children of a bygone era that goes: “Give me a place to stand and a place to grow and we will build Ontario.”
“The dream is dying,” the 64-year-old wrote.
Keenan then went about her day, tending to the seven horses she owns and four more she boards on a 24-acre farm. Later, she checked her Facebook page and saw 100 responses and thought “Oh, wow.”
Then things went nuts. Her post garnered more than 3,000 comments and was shared almost 22,000 times.
“I can’t keep up with all the posts,” she said Monday. “Last night, I didn’t finish cleaning the stalls until 12:30 a.m. This whole thing has just kind of exploded.”
People wrote about seniors buying cat food to eat because they couldn’t afford proper groceries. Others shared stories about hydro costs forcing them to sell their homes.
Wynne phoned an overwhelmed Keenan last Friday night to talk. They talked for 40 minutes and Wynne suggested meeting in person. Someone from her office offered an opportunity when the premier makes a trip to Windsor in a month or so. Keenan asked for something sooner and so, she drove to Toronto looking for what she calls “a concrete crumb.”
“Finger sandwiches and a tour of Queen’s Park won’t cut it,” said Keenan. “People are at a boiling point. I do expect something from them.”
Keenan feels she needs to come out of that meeting with some tangible relief.