Well, Ontario Hydro goes well beyond that.
I just received my monthly hydro bill, $57.98. Of this amount $15.20 is for actual hydro usage.
The rest is made up of a fictional delivery truck
that apparently comes around with a truck-full of electricity. I’ve never seen
it, of course, but it shows up on my bill as “Delivery” - $26.60. In
other words, it costs more for delivery than the product itself.
Then there is “Debt
Retirement Charge” - $1.47. We’ve
been paying into this fund ever since Mike Harris or Ernie Eves introduced it
way back in the 1990s, but no one seems to know how much is enough. It’s due to
be withdrawn in 2014, but so too is the 10% Clean Energy Benefit (…Who thinks up
these jingoistic names?). Therefore, the consumers are left with a net loss.
Not to be outdone, the Fed then joins the provincial government to extract the Harmonized
Sales Tax (HST) - $7.41. Note that the HST is also applied to Delivery and Debt Retirement, making it a charge on a charge.
This is a complete farce and cash grab, of course,
which is only possible because it is a government corporation. Any private
corporation that tried to soak its customers with a fictitious ‘delivery’
charge that was more than the product itself would be either prosecuted
or laughed out of business.
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