TORONTO

Liberal Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault insists that Ontario is in such good financial shape, it can afford to give away $1 billion by cutting the HST off hydro bills.

Thibeault made the comments moments after his government delivered a throne speech at Queen’s Park, promising relief from soaring hydro rates, effective Jan. 1, 2017.

• PC Leader Patrick Brown calls the throne speech a “Band-Aid solution.”

• Brown calls on the government to stop signing contracts under the Green Energy Act.

• The NDP’s Andrea Horwath questions how long the cut will last.

The Liberals will knock Ontario’s 8% portion of the HST off the bill in the form of a rebate.

Oh, and Ontarians living in rural areas or the north can take 20% off their bills as a matter of “fairness,” said Thibeault.

“That is something we’re very proud of because this is a meaningful savings for families,” he said. “We’ve very happy to be doing this. We’re in a fiscal position now where we’ve been doing all of the heavy-lifting over the last few years to make sure that we’re going to balance.”

The Liberal government has promised to balance the provincial budget by 2018.

Thibeault insisted the government can keep its budget plan and provide hydro relief.

“Over the last 10 years, we’ve done great things with our energy system,” Thibeault said. “We’ve made it safe, we’ve made it reliable, and we’ve made it clean. Right now, we need to take it to the next level and make it as affordable as it can be for as many Ontarians as we can.”

The HST cut will result in a $130 savings annually for the average household, according to the government.

The cut, which will appear as a rebate on bills, will apply to residential, agricultural and commercial hydro users. Rural ratepayers would receive a further break of 20% under the plan, which would result in an additional $45 a month, or $540 a year.

The government also announced it will create an additional 100,000 licensed child-care spaces for infants and pre-schoolers within five years, starting in 2017.

The throne speech, delivered by Lt.-Gov. Elizabeth Dowdeswell, also pledged to make economic growth and jobs the government’s top priority.

And the government moved to address the province’s slumping math scores, promising to introduce new supports for students to help with numeracy skills. The new strategy will include having three “math lead” teachers in elementary schools.

Five promises from the throne speech:

8% rebate on hydro bills — an amount equal to the provincial portion of the HST.

20% rebate for rural or northern hydro ratepayers.

100,000 new child-care spaces over five years, starting in 2017.

3 new “math lead” teachers in every elementary school.

350,000 nursing hours added to the home-care system.

sjeffords@postmedia.com

The speech lays out the government's priorities for the next 20 months.

Tthe Liberals say ratepayers have helped cover the costs associated with removing coal-fired generation from the electricity system.

"And while those investments have resulted in increased costs associated with generation, they have also created savings of more than $4 billion a year in health and other costs associated with smog and pollution from coal-fired generation," the speech says.

The government also announced it will create an additional 100,000 licensed child care spaces for infants and pre-schoolers within five years, starting in 2017.

The speech, to be delivered by Lt. Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell, also pledged to make economic growth and jobs the government's top priority.

In the speech, the government also moved to address the province's slumping math scores, promising to introduce new supports for students to help with numeracy skills. The new strategy will include having three "math lead" teachers in all elementary schools.

The speech also takes a shot at Ontario's doctors, who are locked in a high-profile contract dispute with the province.

"(The government) believes that additional resources for health care should be directed where they will help patients most, at the front lines - not only to the highest-billing physicians or highly paid administrators."

More to come...

sjeffords@postmedia.com