Liberals look to buy our votes with our money
Pay less now but more later. That is, essentially, the Ontario Liberal government’s plan for dealing with galloping hydro prices. It’s good politics — maybe — but shaky policy.
Premier Kathleen Wynne’s party is holding on by its fingernails to the lowest rung on the public-opinion ladder, just 15 months out from an election. So it announced Thursday it will reduce hydro bills 17 per cent this summer, after having already moved to rebate the eightper-cent provincial part of the HST on electricity bills. Total “savings” comes out to 25 per cent. And price increases for a few years will be held to inflation.
Many Ontarians are suffering real pain over electricity prices. So how will the Liberals accomplish their pricing miracle? They say they’ll do it by stretching out the amortization period on contracts and big projects such as refurbishing the Darlington and Bruce Nuclear plants. Taxpayers will absorb more of the costs of people’s hydro bills, and we’ll all pony up more in the long run — though less today.
In real life, there can be good arguments for extending a mortgage repayment (to use the government’s analogy). A family looks at its current debt and determines whether it can safely add to it by examining its assets, the likelihood of continuing to bring in a steady paycheque and so on. The lender also must agree. But governments are different: They’re more reckless.
Bad energy choices under both Liberal and Progressive Conservative governments have led to overpaying for solar and wind power and delaying big-ticket infrastructure repairs. They’ve dumped surplus power at low prices to other customers. The electricity system is needlessly complicated and policy has been all over the map.
The government’s current plan assumes no emergencies, no unexpected cataclysms, no global surprises (like, say, the election of a Donald Trump or something else with potential to disrupt economic forecasts).
Further, the government continues to think it can pick winners better than the market can: We give you Ontario’s electric vehicles subsidy program as one example.
It would be better for the government to tough this one out and focus on useful, but lesssweeping relief programs for individuals truly unable to keep the lights on due to prohibitive pricing. Wynne is boosting these programs, to be fair, but they don’t seize the attention of the broader electorate. Instead, she opts to try to buy back our votes with our own money.
We know there are no easy answers for those reeling under the impact of high hydro rates. The Patrick Brown Conservatives have talked about renegotiating private electricity contracts, but their plan remains vague.
We all know governments like to solve their money problems on the backs of our children, or our future selves. They should stop. Perhaps, one day, they’ll see the light.