For immediate release: May 25, 2017
SIMCOE – Ontario’s budget watchdog has confirmed that Kathleen Wynne’s ‘Unfair Hydro Plan’ will actually see hydro rates climb starting next year.
Financial Accountability Officer Stephen LeClair’s analysis confirms Ontario electricity ratepayers will get a jolt of financial pain in the short and long term. Electricity rates will be going up, and Ontario will be saddled with huge costs for decades to come.
“Kathleen Wynne’s unfair hydro plan is a sham. The government’s own numbers confirm it and independent experts confirm it. Rates are going up – period,” said Ontario PC Leader Patrick Brown. “It’s time for Kathleen Wynne to stop covering up the truth – under her plan, our hydro bills will go up. Everything will cost more. This will have a devastating impact on household budgets and the economy.”
“This isn’t surprising,” said Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Toby Barrett. “Everything this government has touched in connection to the electricity file has been bungled. Yet, they try to manipulate it when public pressure mounts against them.”
The report is worse than what was revealed in a leaked Liberal Cabinet document earlier this month.
“This is shocking. The Liberals have known all along that hydro bills will increase next year, then by a whopping 12 per cent year over year starting in 2028,” said Opposition Energy Critic Todd Smith. “To make matters worse, the Liberals are bringing back the debt retirement charge which will cost Ontarians four times more.”
The report confirmed that:
- Rates will rise right after the next provincial election
- The Debt Retirement Charge, which people remember from their bills is returning (four times higher)
- By 2028, rates will jump to even higher than what the leaked document suggested
- The plan will cost Ontarians up to $93 billion – and the best case scenario, which will require the government to balance its budget every year for the next three decades, is this plan’s cost will be $45 billion.
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For more information, contact MPP Toby Barrett
at 519-428-0446 or toby.barrett@pc.ola.org