What will Wynne do about hydro prices?

Re Relief coming from soaring hydro bills, Wynne says, Sept. 8 I’m anxiously awaiting the premier’s solution for families having trouble paying high electricity bills. My guess? She’ll suggest they move to Manitoba or Quebec. Ontario has the highest electricity rates of any province and is the only one where rates are rising rapidly.

Applying a typical time-of-use mix, the average rate for electricity generation is 11.1 cents/kWh. The all-in rate, which also includes charges for delivery, regulation and the HST, is much higher. For a Toronto Hydro customer, consuming 750 kWh per month (Ontario average), the all-in rate is 21.5 cents per kWh.

For a Hydro One customer in rural Ontario, the situation is even worse, at 27.6 cents. So, Toronto residents who relocate to Winnipeg will pay all-in rate of 10.4 cents, a saving of 52 per cent.

Rural Ontarians can do even better by moving to Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!, Que. They pay only 8.5 cents, and save 69 per cent.

Last one out, turn off the lights. Gary Mooney, Prince Edward County, Ont. As a ratepayer, I am incensed at Premier Kathleen Wynne’s suggestion of relief of “soaring hydro bills due to the summer heat wave.” This statement shows a blatant disrespect for citizens and ratepayers by assuming that they are stupid enough to believe that their soaring electricity cost is to be blamed upon the unpredictable weather and not the mismanagement of the governance of Ontario, which has been ongoing for over a decade. Indeed it has continued to decline under her direct care as premier.

Wynne needs to take accountability for her actions and those of her party and to stop insulting us by diverting our attention away from her government and toward fictitious culprits while trying to appear as the hero while offering relief to a problem which she has herself created. At least we can drown our misery in over-taxed alcohol purchased from the local grocery store while this snakeoil saleswoman completes her term in office. The best relief she could offer us would be to completely resign from government. Tom Whent, Sault Ste. Marie