Grits’ hydro bill plan uses worn-out tactic

The Ontario Liberals are using little imagination in their plan to lower electricity bills. To achieve a 17-per-cent cut this summer, the government will simply do what it has done for the better part of the past decade — push the expense down the road while creating additional debt.

Premier Kathleen Wynne announced the details Thursday. Electricity bills will be cut by 17 per cent, probably in time for June billings. But to allow for those savings, the cost of operating Ontario’s massive electricity program will be allowed to pile up as new debt, ultimately costing ratepayers billions of dollars in additional interest payments.

Indeed, it’s been calculated the Liberal plan will cost an additional $1.4 billion a year in interest payments over the next decade.

The cost of electricity won’t be cut this spring; it will be subsidized. Or more accurately, the Liberals’ political fortunes will be subsidized.

That’s what Thursday’s announcement is all about. With just 15 months before Ontario goes to the polls, it’s becoming clear the path to victory will belong to the leader and party best able to convince voters they can solve the province’s electricity woes.

Andrea Horwath threw down the gauntlet earlier this week. In a series of roundtable discussions and announcements, the NDP leader set forth her party’s plan to solve the energy puzzle. New Democrats would buy back Ontario Hydro shares recently sold by the Wynne Liberals, would review and push for new terms on contracts signed with private energy users, and would give consumers the option to opt out of time-of-use pricing.

Horwath said those measures, plus others, would save consumers as much as 20 to 30 per cent on hydro bills.

Until the NDP leader announced her plan the Liberals had no substantial answer to the crisis of rising electricity costs. The Progressive Conservatives, meanwhile, have offered no solution of their own, perhaps content to remain silent while the Liberals strangle on an issue commonly understood to be their creation.

Yet there’s a good chance voters will accept the Liberal plan for what it appears on the surface — a 17 per cent cut in electricity bills.

Wynne and her predecessor Dalton McGuinty have collectively doubled Ontario’s debt over the last 13 years, and Wynne’s own government has yet to table a balanced budget. They have governed Ontario through a blizzard of debt creation, with tacit approval from voters who handed Wynne a majority government in 2014.

Her response to the electricity crisis shouldn’t be surprising. — Peter Epp