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Hydro Ottawa customers have only until Monday to act if they want to oppose the utility’s request for a double-digit increase in electricity distribution charges at an upcoming Ontario Energy Board hearing.

Hydro Ottawa has applied for an increase in distribution charges totalling nearly 24 per cent for residential customers over five years, starting in 2016. Those charges account for about one-fifth of a typical monthly hydro bill.

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If approved by the OEB, the increase would raise the monthly cost for an average residential customer from $28.39 to at least $35.15 by 2020. Business rates would rise even more.

The largest increase for residential customers — $2.42 a month, or more than nine per cent — would occur in 2016, with further monthly increases of $1.44 in 2017 and $1.29 in 2018.

For now, Hydro Ottawa is proposing smaller increases in 2019 and 2020, but the utility says those are subject to change and won’t be finalized until the fall of 2018.