Ontario Liberals announce more hydro gifts, would like us to remember them on election day
That sound coming from Queen’s Park could easily be confused with a government in near-panic over hydro bills, but Dalton McGuinty would really prefer to call it something else. So welcome to the latest break Ontarians are getting on their electricity bills after last week’s 10 per cent discount: an additional two hours of off-peak power for people who are on smart meters (at this point, almost all of Toronto.) The Toronto Star reports:
But the government source said it’s hard to say how much consumers will benefit from with the evening rate drop to off-peak prices, now at 5.1 cents per kilowatt hour—almost half the peak rate of 9.9 cents and well below the mid-peak rate of 8.1 cents.
“How much people could save depends on their energy patterns,” the source told the Star on Sunday.
“It’s a small adjustment but a meaningful one to families. Every little bit helps.”
The difference for families will be pretty noticeable—the difference between peak- and off-peak rates is as much as half, meaning that drying the laundry and running the dishwasher could get a lot cheaper.
The problem is that the opposition are (credibly) crying that this is just an election gimmick designed to add some yeast to McGuinty’s flagging poll numbers. The more substantial criticism here is simply that the government is getting bullied in to doing something that defies common sense. Anyone can take a look at graph of Ontario’s energy use and see when it peaks and when it falls again. We’re not utilities regulators, but can’t help but think this is going to make a mess of something. For a government that’s worked hard to burnish its vanilla-boring but technocratically competent cred, this is some facepalm fodder right here.
If this keeps up, we expect to see the Liberals announce their “screw it, hydro’s free until election day” announcement sometime after Labour Day.
• Break coming on peak hydro pricing – next spring [Toronto Star]
• Off-peak hydro savings to start earlier in Ontario [Globe and Mail]
• Ontario peak hydro pricing break coming next spring [National Post]
Electricity rates in Ontario have increased 46% in the last five years under the McGuinty government. Even with the 10% price reduction starting in January, Ontarians are still facing a 36% increase over the last five years. This works out to approximately a 7% increase each year. So what Mr. Duncan should have said last week, was that Ontarians will be getting a 3% break starting in January.
In addition, the government failed to highlight the fact that when the 2 hour off-peak extension is implemented, the TOU rates will revert back to the summer schedule (on-peak=11am-5pm) rather than the Winter schedule (7am-11am&5pm-9pm). So technically we’re only getting a 2 hour reducing on the mid-peak rates, not the on-peak, which won’t take effect until next October.
http://www.enviralment.ca/2010/11/22/you-can-smell-an-election-coming-when/
These Liberals think we’re idiots…that they’re actually doing us all these favours. Ontario residents have been screwed over for the past 2 terms with them in power…it cannot continue.
Would you rather be screwed over by the liberals for 2 terms than be screwed over by Hudak? Dalton is a leader in the true sense of what defines leadership and he admits his mistakes. I am looking for a change but never with Hudak. he reminds me of the repulicans – negative, reactive, NO NO and never comes up with anything of his own rather than react afte something happens.
I will certainly wish Dalton the best, but Ontarians should not put Hudak in – give the NDP a chance. YES WE CAN!
Is Ontario really going to be better off under Mike Harris 2.0?
Tim Hudak hasn’t offered any real solutions. Voters need to remember what happened under the Harris government. Voting Conservative, will bring us back to those days and even worse! There will be more privatization. The McGuinty government is a government that tries their best to work with people. Sure, they make mistakes, but they are a caring government. Anger and an appetite for change won’t make things better. In fact, it will be worse!
Look at what has happened at the federal level.
I am giving the Liberals a chance, because they deserve it.