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In all, total government revenues are $3.1 billion higher than projected in the provincial budget last March.

“We were able to accommodate it because of the growth of the economy and still maintain our other priorities, which is important,” Phillips said of the increased subsidy. “But it’s a significant amount of money.”

Phillips said Energy Minister Greg Rickford continued to work on a plan to deliver on a Tory campaign promise to lower hydro rates a further 12 per cent, but offered no further details on how the reduction would be achieved.

Interim Liberal leader John Fraser said the government needs to reveal its plan to cut hydro rates instead of blaming the previous government.

“The government’s almost half way through their mandate and they campaigned on reducing rates by a further 12 per cent,” he said. “It’s time for the blame game to end and for the government to tell us what their plan is to reduce rates.”

NDP energy critic Peter Tabuns said the government will not be able to make good on its promise under its current plan. It is continuing the previous Liberal government’s scheme to subsidize hydro rates and not addressing the root causes that lead to rate increases, which diverts the money from other important areas.

“It’s money that could be used to deal with the autism issue, that could be invested in education, that could deal with hallway medicine,” he said. “Having all of the money sucked up into reducing hydro bills when you need to deal with the structural problems doesn’t make sense.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan 30, 2020.