Call for watchdog to assess hydro cuts
New Democrat concerned that Liberal government’s figures just don’t add up
The NDP has asked Ontario’s financial accountability officer to assess the government’s 25-per-cent hydro rate cut legislation given leaked cabinet documents showing rates trending sharply higher in a few years.
“I don’t trust Liberal numbers,” New Democrat MPP Peter Tabuns said Friday after sending a letter to Stephen LeClair, the province’s independent financial watchdog.
An “objective assessment” of the plan and its long-term costs is crucial with the government planning to pass the bill before the legislature rises for its summer recess in three weeks on June 1, Tabuns added.
He accused the government of intending to “jam” the legislation through before MPPs have enough time to study it in detail.
Both the New Democrats and Progressive Conservatives charge the Liberal plan is aimed at keeping rates down while the Liberals, struggling in the polls, try to improve their odds heading into the June 2018 provin- cial election.
Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault supports the NDP request, saying LeClair received a full briefing in April and has made followup requests for information.
“We welcome and encourage the independent financial accountability officer to review Ontario’s Fair Hydro Plan,” he said in a statement.
In the letter to LeClair, Tabuns wrote: “recently leaked cabinet documents suggesting hydro bills in Ontario will rise by over 50 per cent by 2028 are serious cause for concern, as are the government’s attempts to deny the validity of the figures.”
Tabuns was referring to remarks from Thibeault that the confidential cabinet documents, obtained by the Progressive Conservatives and first revealed by the Star, were “outdated” and “inaccurate.”
The NDP called on Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government to turn over “all the documents” used in the formulation of its rate cut plan, which began in January with instant rebates of the 8-per-cent provincial portion of the HST on hydro bills. Another 17-per-cent cut is slated to kick in on bills soon.
Thibeault introduced legislation for the plan on Thursday, saying it will spread the costs of expensive electricity system improvements in the last decade over a longer period of time.
He compared it to “refinancing a mortgage” to have lower payments now. That will cost $25 billion in interest charges over 30 years, with rate increases held to 2 per cent over the next four years.
But the leaked cabinet document shows rates rising more steeply, starting with 6.5 per cent in 2022 and topping out at 10.5 per cent in 2028, when average monthly bills hit $215.
The average monthly bill is now $156 and the rates cut plan will lower the average this year to $123.
While the NDP has a plan to cut hydro rates between 17 and 30 per cent, Thibeault said it would not bring “immediate relief” for Ontario homeowners, renters and small businesses counting on the government plan for help with their hydro bills this summer.