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NDP to vote against bill that paves the way for 25% hydro rate cut

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NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, who described the Liberal plan as “relief for a couple of years, then, boom!” says people know they’ll pay the price “one way or another.”

New Democrats will vote against the Liberal government’s “borrowing bill” that set the stage for Premier Kathleen Wynne’s promised 25 per cent hydro rate cut.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath signalled the move Monday over concerns that Ontarians will see lower rates only for a few years then see them climb sharply again according to leaked cabinet documents revealed last week.

“People know, one way or another, they would pay the price,” Horwath told reporters after holding a meeting with her MPPs on the issue.

She described the Liberal plan as “relief for a couple of years, then, boom!”

Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault unveiled legislation last Thursday to enable and set up the “special purpose (financial) vehicle” to handle the borrowing of billions of dollars to fund the cuts, which will result in ratepayers paying interest of $25 billion over 30 years to lower rates starting this summer.

The money will amortize the costs of improvements to the hydro system over the last decade — such as phasing out heavily polluting coal-fired plants and contracting more renewable power such as wind and solar — over a longer period of time to give people a break on rates now.

Electricity bills fell 8 per cent starting in January when the government instantly rebated the provincial portion of the HST. Another 17 per cent will come soon.

Both the NDP and Progressive Conservatives have charged the Liberal plan does nothing to lower the structural causes of high electricity prices, and say the rate cuts are a ploy by Wynne to boost her flagging popularity with a provincial election campaign just one year away.

Horwath said she’s not worried about the government painting her New Democrats as opposed to the rate cut, saying “the Liberals can play whatever political games they want.”

The energy minister has dismissed the leaked cabinet documents, obtained by the Conservatives and first reported here, as “outdated” and denied the government plans to raise hydro rates 10.5 per cent in 2028, when average monthly bills are forecast to hit $215.

“Hydro rates will be higher than they’ve ever been before,” Conservative Leader Patrick Brown said in the Legislature’s daily question period.

Premier Kathleen Wynne responded with a line similar to Thibeault’s that the documents were “out of date” and “not the document on which the plan was built,” Brown challenged her to show “a new document with rates going down.”

According to the leaked documents, after rates fall this year, they will rise by no more than 2 per cent in the four following years before starting to rise 6.5 per cent annually.

Horwath has promised to cut hydro rates between 17 and 30 per cent if she wins the June 7, 2018 provincial election. The Conservatives have not unveiled a plan for hydro costs.

“The party opposite has no idea what to do with the energy file,” Thibeault shot at Brown during question period.

The Conservatives are having a pre-election policy convention in November.

https://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2017/05/15/ndp-to-vote-against-bill-that-paves-the-way-for-25-hydro-rate-cut.html

 

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