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Photo by Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia

In an attempt to keep all of this borrowing from appearing on the government’s own books, it created a separate entity to stack up the debt. The Liberals had by that time developed advanced expertise in making billions of dollars disappear. The idea was that the debt would build up, but future power users would have to pay it all back with interest, later on. That boomerang effect would have made future power bills wildly unaffordable, but that would be a problem for another government.

When the PCs took over in 2018, they found themselves in a difficult spot. The Liberals’ fake power prices had become the new normal. Restoring sanity to power bills would have made the PCs the villains who drove power bills through the roof. If that wasn’t problem enough, the PCs had railed against high power costs in opposition, campaigned on affordability and promised to cut power bills by an additional 12 per cent. That’s a promise the government has not yet kept and, one can only hope, never will.

So, the government now finds itself in the same position as a person standing on a land mine. As long as it doesn’t make a move, everything will be fine.

Photo by Veronica Henri/Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network

The government has made a few modest improvements to the ridiculous power situation. Cancelling unneeded wind and solar contracts will help lower future costs a bit. As well, starting Nov. 1, power bills were amended to make the cost of electricity clearer.

The PCs have also scrapped the Liberals’ hocus-pocus accounting and moved the cost of the power subsidy onto the province’s books, a move recommended by the auditor-general. That makes the cost transparent and prevents the boomerang effect on future power users, but it’s not all good news. The electricity subsidy is now paid by taxpayers, instead. While there is obviously an enormous overlap between power users and taxpayers, this changes power bills from a consumption base to an income base. Higher income earners now pay for their own power and part of someone else’s. Those in lower tax brackets can turn on the lights knowing that part of the cost will be subsidized by the person up the street.