Rural hydro customers are suffering
While it is understood our electricity infrastructure needs to be maintained, it might have served the ratepayer a bit better if the Liberals had not spent billions of dollars building heavy-duty transmission lines and transformers to the solar and wind farms, which have proven to be woefully inefficient.
While Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault’s salary will never put him in the position of having to choose if he buys food or keeps the lights on, that is not the case for many Ontario families. The so called Fair Hydro Plan only kicks the costs down the road for us to pay later, with a dangerous caveat that the budget needs to be balanced for decades to come or costs will escalate to levels that will make hydro costs in 2016 and 2017 seem like a bargain.
The Ontario Liberals have done an excellent job pitting rural Hydro users against their urban cousins. Rural Hydro One customers have seen increases far above those who live in urban centres, struggling with the much higher and punitive delivery costs that have crippled families across the province.
What Thibeault doesn’t seem to understand is that those of us who live in rural Ontario are at the breaking point and can not afford any more increases.
As for his claim that those of us who live in rural and northern communities pay more because it costs more to deliver the electricity to our homes, I would suggest that Thibeault check the scorecards at the OEB for Toronto Hydro and rural Ontario. He will discover that it costs more to deliver electricity per customer in Toronto than it does for rural Ontario.
The energy minister needs to stop preaching rural customers will see up to 40 to 50 per cent off their bills. Once again, Thibeault knows full well that a smaller percentage of ratepayers will receive that discount, but only if they meet the “low income” threshold. The majority of us will not qualify for the LEAP or OESP programs.
I would suggest that if the Wynne Liberals really want to deliver a more fair hydro program and provide real relief for rural Ontario, the time has come to incorporate a truly universal delivery charge that is shared equally with ALL hydro customers, those with Hydro One and the LDC’s across the province. We need a set rate paid equally by all Ontarians. Gail Batten Napanee