Ontario’s NDP Energy Critic is calling for an end to hydro disconnections in the province. More and more people across the province simply can’t afford to pay their hydro bill. Temiskaming-Cochrane MPP John Vanthof says the Minister of Energy has refused to call energy poverty a crisis even though 60,000 families have had their hydro cut off.
Vanthof says in Northern Ontario local businesses are having a hard time paying their hydro bills because they keep going up. He says some mines, mills and grocery stores have started feeling the impact and talked about one local business that’s seen the cost of hydro go up from $3,500 a month to over $7,000 over the past ten years. He adds while businesses are feeling this impact, it doesn’t stop there. The MPP says families have to worry about high hydro rates and if they can’t afford to pay their bills they could be cut off.
Vanthof says the Energy Minister won’t stop the sale of Hydro One even though it’s continuing to drive up prices. He adds the contracts the government handed out are better for privatized organizations than they are for the consumers.
The NDP’s energy critic Peter Tabuns says we can expect to see the number of disconnections to soar next spring when Hydro One will resume cutting off families who can’t afford to pay their bills.
