Ontarians will see lower hydro bills for the next 10 years, but will then pay the price for that decrease for the following 20 years, under new legislation introduced today.
Electricity bills in the province have roughly doubled in the last decade, and have sparked increasing anger among Ontarians, leading to plummeting approval ratings for Premier Kathleen Wynne.
Ten weeks after announcing a plan to lower hydro bills, the Liberal government has introduced its legislation to lower time-of-use rates, take the cost of low-income and rural support programs off bills, and introduce new social programs.
Time-of-use rates are being lowered by removing from bills a portion of the global adjustment, a charge consumers pay for above-market rates to power producers.
For the next 10 years, a new entity overseen by Ontario Power Generation will pay that difference and take on debt to do so.
Then, the cost of paying back that debt -which the government says will be up to $28 billion - will go back onto ratepayers' bills for the next 20 years as a ``Clean Energy Adjustment.''
Leader Patrick Brown says "“it turns out Kathleen Wynne’s so-called ‘Fair Hydro Plan’ isn’t fair after all. Starting next year, hydro rates will rise again, and by 2024 Ontarians will be paying a record high,”
Brown says "the Liberal scheme isn’t about making life affordable for Ontario. It’s about Kathleen Wynne’s short-term goal of re-election in 2018.”
According to the P-C's, the details are explained in black and white in a leaked document marked 'confidential' presented to the Liberal cabinet in early March 2017. It shows that rates decline in 2017 only to rise the following year. However in 2022, the Liberals’ plan "completely falls apart and rates immediately spike."
Year Average Monthly Residential Bill
2010 $104
2015 $136
2016 $158
2017 $123
2018 $126
2019 $128
2020 $131
2021 $133
2022 $142
2023 $151
2024 $161
2026 $183
2030 $216
2040 $225