Hydro was top issue long before relief came

Ontario’s government learned from its own polling that the rising cost of hydro was people’s top concern 10 months before the Liberals publicly acknowledged it and announced an 8-per-cent reduction on electricity bills. The government-commissioned polling — examined by The Canadian Press — took place from 2013 to 2016. Monthly tracking shows that in December 2013, the cost of electricity became the worst-ranked issue based on performance, with 70 per cent of respondents saying the government was on the wrong track.

Specific questions on electricity appear in July 2014 and again in March 2015, when polling found most people had acted to make their homes more energy efficient and a majority supported the often-maligned time-of-use pricing.

By January 2016, jobs, the economy and health took over as areas of greater concern for the next few months, but the Gandalf Group polling told the government that controlling electricity prices was among its main perceived weaknesses.

It wasn’t until a Sept. 1 byelection loss that the government’s tune changed.

While Premier Kathleen Wynne’s 8-per-cent rebate was welcomed it didn’t resonate as widely as the government likely hoped. Only 36 per cent said the government was doing a good job of controlling electricity prices. This month, the premier announced a further 17-per-cent average reduction on bills, cuts to delivery charges for some rural customers, eliminating the delivery charge for on-reserve First Nations customers, expanding a low-income support program and establishing a new home energy efficiency improvement fund.