$60K bill to hook up dream home shocks couple
Need to pay for poles due to gap in power lines
First, Allan and Debbie Robinson saved to purchase property in a rural area east of Minden, in Ontario’s northeast cottage country. They managed that 15 years ago. Their next goal was to save enough to build a house.
They put up a trailer and lived in it while construction was under way. Finally, this year, they were ready to have the electricity hooked up so they could get their occupancy permit and move in.
But what they hadn’t counted on was the high cost of getting power to their house.
Hydro One quoted them $60,000, CBC reported. The house wasn’t hidden off in the middle of nowhere — it was a mere 35 metres to the main road.
Their property, as it happened, was situated on a road with a 2.5-kilometre gap that didn’t have power lines. Before they purchased the lot 15 years ago, Robinson told CBC, they were told by the utility the gap would be eliminated “soon.”
As the nearest hydro pole was 440 metres away, the Robinsons had to pay to add four more poles and string more wires than they had expected. And then, as if to add insult to injury, Hydro One would take over ownership of the line.
In 2006, $3.3 million was spent to upgrade the electrical grid in the area, cbc. ca says, including replacing poles and installing new lines. But that didn’t fill in the gap in the line near the Robinsons’ property.
“They’re now telling me this is a (hydro) grid extension. It’s not. It’s a line completion they failed to do,” Robinson said.
Now, the couple will have to winter in the trailer, mere steps away from their dream home.
“Our plan was to be in the house and to be wintering in the house. That’s not going to happen,” he said.
“It hurts. I love the house.
I want to be in so badly,” Robinson, 60, said. “I’ve never owned a home. We’ve struggled all our lives to be able to own a home. That ($60,000 is) way out of our budget. Especially when it’s, like, a third of the cost we spent (building) the house.”
As for Hydro One, whose cost for the hookup would be $130, a spokesperson told CBC that “all electric utilities in the province must follow the rules set by the Ontario Energy Board, which require individuals who purchase property off of the grid to pay for the installation of new poles, wires and equipment to connect to the existing electricity system.
“These rules prevent costs related to the needs of a specific customer from being paid for by all Ontario electricity customers,” the utility said.
If any neighbours with unserviced land want a hydro connection, they’ll also have to pay for infrastructure, according to Hydro One, and the Robinsons would get some of that money.