CORNWALL, Ontario – Stormont, Dundas and South Glengarry Conservative MPP Jim McDonnell has started a petition to reduce electricity rates in the province of Ontario.
In the petition on his website, McDonnell claims that electricity rates in the province have risen by 300 percent under the current government.
The current Hydro One rate is 18 cents per kilowatt-hour during peak usage periods. That is a six cent increase per kilowatt-hour since 2013 according to the Ontario Energy Board.
A comparison done by Manitoba Hydro of major Canadian city’s shows Montreal having the lowest electricity rate at 7.2 cents per kilowatt-hour and Ottawa as the most expensive at 16 cents per kilowatt-hour.
“I have launched a petition calling upon the Liberal Government to come to their senses and stop their failed energy policies that have driven electricity costs to unaffordable levels, forcing many Ontarians to choose whether to heat their homes or buy food for the family table” McDonell stated in a press release distributed on Thursday. “Ontarians’ electricity bills are completely out of proportion to the wholesale cost of electricity, which has reached as low as sixtenths of a cent per kilowatt-hour this year. Additional charges such as the Global Adjustment, outrageous delivery charges, taxes and a culture of runaway waste and over-generous executive compensation at Hydro One contribute to inflating our bills to almost thirty times that amount. My constituents are justified in calling this nothing short of highway robbery”.
