Sudbury riding candidate, Jamie West, says the premier has failed Ontario residents when it comes to electricity, but he says the NDP has a plan to fix it

By Jamie West

Liberal Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault continues to claim the Wynne Liberals have gotten hydro bills under control, but let’s face it, that’s not what families are seeing on their bills. The reality is that after years of calling for action, Kathleen Wynne and her Liberal Energy minister have only brought us one disappointment after another.

And thanks to their $40-billion borrowing scheme, more hydro hikes are coming after the election.

First, without a mandate, the Wynne Liberals sold off Hydro One — a public asset that generated hundreds of millions of dollars for the public every year, helping to pay for things like health care and education. Ontario’s Financial Accountability Office (FAO) found that by privatizing Hydro One and losing these public revenues, the Ontario government will be worse off by about $500 million a year, every year, forever.

Then, when high hydro rates reached a tipping point, the Liberals rolled out their disastrous new scheme, borrowing $26 billion to lower bills artificially before the election by deferring payments until after the election. According to the Financial Accountability Office, in a few years hydro bills will skyrocket yet again, as the debts come due and ratepayers are forced to pay an extra $40 billion in debt and interest on top of the actual costs of hydro.

Now, the privatized Hydro One is lobbying for a 20-per-cent rate increase, even though Premier Wynne promised that a privatized Hydro One would lower rates, not increase them. It’s even asking for the power to install pre-pay meters for “high collection risk” consumers — people struggling to pay their hydro bills. This would bypass new rules that protect consumers from electricity disconnections, and ensure the power cuts out automatically when a family doesn’t feed the meter.

Despite what the Liberal Energy minister says, this is what privatization looks like. Young families telling their children that they can’t turn the lights on and seniors bundled up in blankets because they can’t afford to heat their homes. Ontario families want hope that things will finally get better and they deserve a government with a plan to make this happen.

New Democrats have a plan to bring rates down for residents and businesses by about 30 per cent – not by borrowing, but by fixing the system. If Andrea Horwath becomes premier, she’ll start returning Hydro One to full public ownership. We will end mandatory time-of-use pricing and ban the installation and use of pre-pay hydro meters in Ontario. Sudbury residents will finally spend less time worrying about their energy bills and more time enjoying all that our region has to offer.

A fully public Hydro One will get private profits off your hydro bill. More control of our hydro system will allow us to offer competitive energy rates to companies looking to grow their business right here in Ontario.

Andrea Horwath and Ontario’s NDP have a plan that offers hope to Sudbury families and a leader we can count on to deliver.

Jamie West is the Ontario NDP candidate for the Sudbury riding.

