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TORONTO — The Ontario Energy Board is rejecting a call from the province’s auditor general to clarify the so-called global adjustment charge on electricity bills.

The global adjustment is an extra charge that is levied to cover the gap between the guaranteed prices the Liberal government promised electricity generators in 20-year contracts and the actual market rates.

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It is added to the time-of-use electricity rates for consumers and businesses, but at different percentages for peak, mid-peak and off-peak hours.

Auditor general Bonnie Lysyk estimated the global adjustment accounted for 70 per cent of consumer’s electricity rates in 2013, and said in her 2016 annual report this month that it should be much clearer for consumers.

“The significant impact of the global adjustment on time-of-use rates was not transparent to ratepayers,” wrote Lysyk. “Between 2006 and 2015, the 10-year accumulative actual and projected global adjustment totalled about $50 billion.”