Stop shutting off utilities: energy minister

Ontario companies told to halt winter disconnections when residents can’t pay bills

“At no point, under any circumstances, should a customer be put at risk over their electricity bill.” GLENN THIBEAULT ONTARIO ENERGY MINISTER

Under pressure to take action, Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault has asked local utilities to stop disconnecting residential customers who can’t pay their electricity bills during the winter.

The move came as opposition parties urged him to order a halt on winter disconnections until proposed legislation banning them can be passed after MPPs return from their Christmas recess next week.

“At no point, under any circumstances, should a customer be put at risk over their electricity bill,” Thibeault wrote in a letter to utilities Thursday.

“All LDCs (local distribution companies) should commit to this high standard,” he added. In December, Hydro One announced it would no longer do winter disconnections and promised to hook 1,400 customers back onto the grid.

Officials have said some utilities in the province have quietly adopted informal policies of not disconnecting customers for nonpayment over the winter. Others put limits on how much electricity customers in arrears can use.

Thibeault said some northern and rural residents who lose hydro also end up without water because they use electric pumps to raise it from wells.

“If you knock out power . . . there’s no water,” he told the Star from his Sudbury riding. New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath said Thibeault’s letter “falls far short of the actions Ontarians expect and deserve” and joined the Progressive Conservatives in accusing him of playing “political games.”

The Conservatives have called on the government to break the winter disconnection ban from a larger bill introduced last June.

It is being studied by a legislative committee.

“Families are freezing in the cold,” said Tory MPP Todd Smith, his party’s energy critic, who repeated a demand that Thibeault order the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) to ban winter disconnections by utilities.

Thibeault said he doesn’t have that power under the Electricity Act passed by a previous Tory government in 1998.

Breaking the component out of the bill that gives the OEB more power over disconnections would take longer because it mean going back to “square one” in the legislative process, Thibeault added.

The Liberals have offered to bring the bill back for final debate starting Feb. 28.

“We can do this quickly if we work together,” Thibeault said.

About 60,000 customers had their electricity disconnected for nonpayment last year.

The energy board does not yet have statistics for this winter.

In the meantime, Thibeault and Premier Kathleen Wynne have promised more relief on high electricity prices in the coming weeks, in addition to instant rebates on the 8-per-cent provincial portion of the HST.

The energy minister acknowledged the government has done a “very poor job” of communicating the reasons behind the rise in hydro rates and on programs for low-income families to get assistance.

“People don’t understand it,” he said. “Not only are the bills confusing, so is the system.”