Wynne’s out of shells in hydro shell game

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne knows if she’s to have any chance of winning next year’s provincial election, she has to do something about Ontario’s outrageously high electricity rates.

The issue has become a flashpoint for Ontarians, fed up with rapidly increasing electricity costs that, as of 2016, were the highest in Canada, according to a Hydro Quebec survey of major Canadian cities.

Public fury is aggravated by the fact that no matter how much people try to conserve electricity, their bills keep rising.

The Liberals have created a perfect storm on electricity pricing, resulting in a Catch-22. The more people conserve energy, the more Wynne’s government — the most indebted sub-sovereign borrower in the world — has to raise electricity rates to make up for the monies lost due to conservation.

That explains Wynne’s conversion on the road to Damascus last week as her government made it illegal for electrical utilities to shut off people’s power for non-payment in winter. This, even though her government was content to do nothing all last year when it knew 60,000 Ontarians were behind in their electricity bills at of the end of 2015.

All that’s changed now is the government is one year closer to next year’s election, so suddenly it’s concerned about people who have been driven into energy poverty.

The other problem is all the Wynne government can do when it comes to electricity rates is play shell games with public money.

For example, the Wynne government is using general tax revenues to pay for the $1 billion cost of removing the eight per cent provincial portion of the HST from electricity bills, as of Jan. 1.

This is taking with one hand and giving with another, since hydro ratepayers getting a rebate paid for it in their provincial taxes.

The Wynne government has also talked about using up to $1.3 billion of cap and trade revenues, which will start coming in to government coffers this year, to subsidize electricity bills. All that means is Ontarians, who are paying higher prices for most goods and services as a result of cap and trade, will be subsidizing their own electricity bills.

What undercuts all of Wynne’s machinations to lower hydro bills is that at the end of the day, there is only one taxpayer, regardless of whether the government is taking their money through provincial taxes, cap and trade fees or electricity bills.

Basically, Wynne has run out of shells when it comes to playing shell games with public money and electricity rates.

Voters need to remember that during next year’s election.