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The following editorial from
the Toronto Sun newspaper is prefaced by the release of 2015’s Sunshine List
- Ontario’s annual list of top-paid public sector workers – which revealed
that Tom Mitchell, CEO of OPG (Ontario Power Generation) topped the list for
the second year in a row at $1.56M in salary and benefits.
Indeed, OPG and
Hydro One, the publicly-owned electricity distribution giant whose billing
process has sparked an ombudsman’s investigation, put about 12,000 workers on
the list, including 435 who made more than $200,000, 41 over $300,000, 20
over $400,000 and seven over $500,000.
The shear voracity
of this ‘largesse’ stinks to high heaven when you consider the unnecessary
and manipulated cost of a hydro today … And rising.
If you wish to drop
Bob Chiarelli a note to express your feelings, his email address is:
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Premier Kathleen Wynne’s
problem is that she’s running out of shells with which to play her shell game
on electricity rates.
The cumulative effect of a
slew of announcements by Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli Thursday — more
accurately re-announcements since most weren’t new — is this.
Starting Jan. 1, the average
yearly hydro bill for Ontarians is going to increase by about $120 — higher for
some, lower for others.
The big reason is Ontario is
ending its so-called clean energy benefit, a 10% government subsidy of hydro
rates which reduced the average bill by $17 per month up to now.
Ontario will also end the
monthly debt retirement charge to hydro customers — after being blasted by the
provincial auditor general in 2011 for retaining it long after it had fulfilled
its purpose — resulting in a saving of $6 per month on the average bill.
Low-income families will
receive a rebate on their electricity bills ranging from $20 to $50 a month,
paid for by increases on the hydro bills of all other electricity consumers.
This overall $120-per-year
increase for the average hydro consumer is independent of all other increases
they will be facing in the coming years, while the Liberals continue their mad
and failed experiment with expensive, unreliable and unneeded wind and solar
power.
Wind and solar — which
Ontario has to buy before all other forms of energy under its deals with
producers — aren’t needed because we have an energy surplus, yet the Liberals
keep bringing more and more of this power online.
This so-called “green”
energy is doing nothing to help the environment, because the Liberals didn’t
replace coal-fired electricity with wind and solar energy as they claim, but
with nuclear power and natural gas.
Finally, all of these other
rate hikes are also independent of what will happen when Wynne introduces
carbon pricing in Ontario, which will jack up hydro rates even more.
Simply put, Ontarians are
going to be paying for the Liberals’ blunders on the electricity file for
generations to come.
Their only real policy on
electricity rates is to extract as much cash from our hides as they can, to
keep their debt-ridden government afloat.
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