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Hydro Power, Ontario Hydro

Ontario Hydro Electricity Consumers Getting it every which way

by Adam K. Anderson
Friday, April 1, 2005

April Fools is here, and the joke is on us! Electricity prices are going up again throughout Ontario.

Who is to blame? It seems like just about everybody.

With OPG making a profit off of the generation of power, the McGuinty Liberals have nevertheless increased hydro rates from 4.3 cents per kWh when they took office, to 4.7 cents last year, and now as of April 1st to 5.0 cents per kWh for the first 750kWh, and 5.8 cents after that.

You will really get hit if you switched to electric heating a couple of decades ago, as the federal and Ontario governments urged all citizens to do.

But that is only the half of it.

Local Distribution Companies (LDC's) such as Hydro Ottawa and Toronto Hydro have taken this as an opportunity to also raise their distribution rates, all approved by the Ontario Energy Board (OEB).

Publicly owned LDC's used to operate as non-profits to benefit citizens, but now after raising their distribution rates, Toronto Hydro is a city cash cow bringing in a "profit" of $195 million last year, and smaller "profits" for the other municipally owned power distribution companies. In reality, this profit is a hidden tax on all residents.

Raising LDC distribution rates at the same time as the generation rates, is a cynical attempt by city politicians to hide their power tax in with the provincial increase so they get none of the blame for skyrocketing rates.

And the story gets even worse, with everybody paying a "debt retirement" charge to pay down the debt from the old Ontario hydro — too bad the debt continues to grow.

It is apparent that smart meters are being brought in by the government to complicate the billing process so the province can raise rates even more while keeping us in the dark, all at our expense.

But you know there are advocacy groups out there and they must be fighting for the citizens, right?

Tom Adams of Energy Probe continues to promote the idea that much higher prices for Ontario consumers are good for us because it will force energy conservation, regardless of the effects on our standard of living.

Energy Probe wants, not only to eliminate all coal-fired power generation, the cheapest form of power, but to get rid of all nuclear power plants. These forms of power provide the majority of Ontario's power generation capabilities at present. But, Energy Probe's Tom Adams claims that they can be easily replaced by natural gas, wind turbines and solar energy; This in spite of the fact of dwindling natural gas supplies and skyrocketing prices, wind power doesn't work when there is insufficient wind and solar energy is very expensive, doesn't work at night, has reduced output in the winter or inclimate weather and solar cells are produced using some of the most toxic substances known to man.

Last October a new coalition calling itself the Low Income Energy Network claimed it was coming to defend the public's interests. They held a conference on October 20, 2004, and the report we heard on it was chilling.

At it, the Toronto Environmental Alliance's Keith Stewart talked about setting up programs for energy conservation, alot about money and "controlling the public agenda on energy issues".

One loudmouthed "tenant advocate" spent his time hammering away at MPP Donna Cansfield, there to represent the Minister of Energy, when she stated that smart meters would only cost $60 including installation, a minimal cost for all the benefits they would bring. The attacks against her and the government only got worse after she left the conference very early.

Mary Todorow of the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario, a Legal Aid Ontario funded organization, announced that energy issues would be used to bring down the government and that in a fews months her group would be doing a study whose conclusions would be that smart meters would be a costly government boondoggle that would have huge negative impacts on the poor and drive some into homelessness. What does this have to do with Legal Aid?

Another Legal Aid-funded group, the Canadian Environmental Law Association, was a speaker, and the following month ( November,) through another non-profit they run, the Resource Library for the Environment and the Law, received $45,000 from the government's Trillium Foudation, for a 6 month program to create a website and to hold a workshop, to facilitate the Low Income Energy Network's political lobbying. Great! Government funding to lobby for more government funding.

Michael Janigan, of the Public Interest Advocacy Center in Ottawa, discussed that the province had announced there was $225 million for energy conservation, and it was paramount for nonprofits to get together to create proposals for the government quickly. In his assessment, he figured nonprofits should aim at trying to "get control" of 15% of this funding, some $30 million. He didn't discuss how getting control of this money would actually help the public.

Greensaver's Keir Brownstone said he had gotten many people, including hundreds of tenants, to totally give up using clothes dryers, instead using clothes lines saving a lot of energy, and a lot of funding was needed to educate people in this area. He also wanted to pressure the government to bring in a total ban on the use of dehumidifiers in houses and do something to penalize those who use air conditioners.

Others at this event included former NDP Toronto City Councillor Rob Maxwell, who had landed on his feet with a cushy job as the Executive Director of the City of Toronto's, Toronto Atmospheric Fund.

With groups like these trying to control the agenda, and the complete disregard for a reliable and cost efficient energy supply for all Ontarians, we have a lot to worry about.

The Ontario government has said it will shut down all coal-fired generators by 2007, this in spite of the fact that they supply some 1/3 of all Ontario generated electricity and there is little likelyhood they can be replaced in time. Instead we will be forced to replace it with much more expensive imported energy.

How about trying to reduce the pollution from the existing power stations rather than shutting them outright?

They all want to build new power stations that run off of natural gas that is in short supply, when it still creates so- called "greenhouse gases", something that nuclear energy doesn't.

As for we the public, it is clear to see we are not considered citizens, but only as consumers to be taken to the cleaners by all sides on this issue.