Ontario Liberals ordered hydro firms to advertise rate-cut plan on bills: NDP

The Ontario government ordered hydro distribution companies to place partisan messages on customers’ bills that advertise the Liberals’ plan to cut electricity rates, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said Wednesday.

Horwath said the order, signed by Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault and deputy premier Deb Matthews on June 15, instructed companies that the messages promoting the government’s Fair Hydro Plan were to appear on bills from July 2017 to July 2018, a period which ends a month after the next provincial election.

The order dictated the precise wording of the messages and is a “heavy-handed” way to advertise a Liberal plan on the cheap, she said.

“It’s a desperate attempt by this government to reach Ontarians and try to show themselves in a better light,” said Horwath.

The messages should inform customers that the government’s hydro plan “substantially lowers electricity bills for typical residential customers,” says the order, obtained by the New Democrats. They should also include an insert that has the Ontario government trillium logo in a “reasonably prominent place” along with the words “Ontario’s Fair Hydro Plan” and “Bringing electricity bills down”.

Thibeault says the messaging was meant to help ratepayers understand their bills.

“It’s (about) trying to make sure people understand clearly what their bills are all about,” he said. “Sometimes we treat people like they’re energy experts rather than just trying to understand their bill.”