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Ontario residential electricity users should brace themselves for an average increase of $120 a year beginning next year, Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli says.

“We are expecting (bills) to go up less than $10 a month,” Chiarelli acknowledged to reporters Thursday after announcing two other moves to cut costs for customers, the elimination of a debt retirement charge, and a new program to cut prices for low-income families.

The average reduction for residential customers from getting rid of a debt retirement will be $6 a month. That will be more than offset by elimination of the Clean Energy Benefit, which provided an average monthly savings of $17 a month.

The two moves take effect Jan. 1, 2016.

Chiarelli boasted that the price of electricity has to go up because of all the money the Liberal government has invested in green energy.

“The pressures that are on our system are coming from our huge investment in clean energy to get rid of dirty coal,” he said.

Tory energy critic MPP John Yakabuski said the price of electricity is a “shell game” of duelling programs.

“No one is arguing that low-income families don’t need a break but what this government doesn’t understand is that the cost of electricity is becoming unaffordable for everyone,” Yakabuski told the Star.

“Everything this government does something on electricity it hurts people,” he said later.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath told the legislature during question period that the cost of electricity has gone up 325 per cent since 2002. The former McGuinty Liberal government was elected in 2003.

“The Liberals are trying to pretend they’ve got a handle on the hydro file and if there’s one thing we all know for sure, the Liberals do not have handle on the hydro file,” Horwath told reporters later.

Chiarelli said the proposed Ontario Electricity Support Program for low-income families will slash their monthly electricity rate for a low-income family by $20 to $50 a month.

“For many low-income Ontarians, paying their monthly electricity bill is a real challenge. In comparison to other residential consumers in the province, low-income Ontarians spend a proportionally higher percentage of their income on electricity per month,” Chiarelli told reporters earlier.

“Families and households should not have to choose between turning on the lights and putting food on the table,” he said.

The minister said the Ontario Electricity Support Program is expected take effect Jan. 1, 2016.

Yakabuski said people really feeling the pinch in his riding of Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke are seniors who were convinced by the province in the 1970s to build homes heated by electricity because power was so cheap then.

“And now they are finding they don’t even have an income to pay those bills during the winter months and this government doesn’t seem to recognize it or doesn’t seem to care what electricity prices are doing to harm people,” he said.

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THE UPS AND DOWNS OF HYDRO BILLS

A family of four with an income of less than $28,000 under the proposed Ontario Electricity Support Program for low-income Ontarians would be eligible for a $38 monthly credit, or $455 per year.

A family of four with an income of $100,000 using an average of 800 kilowatt hours of electricity monthly will pay up to $10 more or an additional $120 year.