Ontario electricity rates....
Jan 15, 2020 0:19:14 GMT -5
Post by Cranky on Jan 15, 2020 0:19:14 GMT -5
I wasn't surprised when my wife showed me the new electricity rates, particularly at the plant.....I was SHOCKED. Genuinely shocked. It wasn't a 5% or 10% increase. It went up by....53% to 65%.
ON PEAK...13.4 cents to 20.6 cents..up by 65%
MID PEAK.. 9.4 cents to 14.4 cents..up by 53%
OFF PEAK.. 6.5 cents to 10.1 cents..up by 55%
AND increasing service charges.
In my business, I used heavy equipment and massive, heated presses. Several of them in fact. So why the schock? Because if I was running my business today, I would go bankrupt with those rates. I've shut down operations about 3 years ago but at the height of my business, it was a 24/7 operation. At that time, about 4% of my cost was electricity. Now, it would be closer to 14% and wipe out my profit. Essentially I would be working like a dog....to employ people and pay taxes, or shut down. Obviously that's what I and every business owner dreams of.
So why do I care? Because I still live here and crippling rates are part of our economic fabric. Manufacturers are screaming for lower rates or else. School taxes have go up to pay for higher rates. Municipal taxes. People need higher wages to afford higher rates. Etc..etc..etc. EVRRYTHING GOES UP. There is no escaping it's use nor the compounding cost of crippling rate increases.
So where are the sky high rates going to go? Higher. Much higher.
Here is a great read.....and even grimmer future....
nationalpost.com/opinion/randall-denley-liberals-screwed-up-ontario-hydro-and-now-the-doug-ford-has-to-clean-the-mess
ON PEAK...13.4 cents to 20.6 cents..up by 65%
MID PEAK.. 9.4 cents to 14.4 cents..up by 53%
OFF PEAK.. 6.5 cents to 10.1 cents..up by 55%
AND increasing service charges.
In my business, I used heavy equipment and massive, heated presses. Several of them in fact. So why the schock? Because if I was running my business today, I would go bankrupt with those rates. I've shut down operations about 3 years ago but at the height of my business, it was a 24/7 operation. At that time, about 4% of my cost was electricity. Now, it would be closer to 14% and wipe out my profit. Essentially I would be working like a dog....to employ people and pay taxes, or shut down. Obviously that's what I and every business owner dreams of.
So why do I care? Because I still live here and crippling rates are part of our economic fabric. Manufacturers are screaming for lower rates or else. School taxes have go up to pay for higher rates. Municipal taxes. People need higher wages to afford higher rates. Etc..etc..etc. EVRRYTHING GOES UP. There is no escaping it's use nor the compounding cost of crippling rate increases.
So where are the sky high rates going to go? Higher. Much higher.
Here is a great read.....and even grimmer future....
The Liberals screwed up hydro in Ontario and now Doug Ford has to clean up the mess
The Ontario government’s effort to eliminate its projected $9-billion deficit is a grim struggle that involves unpopular service changes, wage restraint and general penny-pinching. Imagine if there was one change that would cut that deficit nearly in half without raising taxes or taking away any services.
As it turns out, there is. Have you heard about the Ontario Electricity Rebate? That’s the one where the government subsidizes everyone’s power bills, so that we can all pretend that the cost of power is lower. The bill for this act of self-deception is expected to be $4 billion this year. That’s a heck of a way to spend money the government doesn’t have.
The PC government did not invent what was called the Fair Hydro Plan, but it has taken what is probably the worst policy of the former Liberal government and given it a brand new name. Same stupid content, though.
The Liberals, after years of merrily committing to high-priced power deals, finally realized that the cost of electricity had gotten to a number far, far higher than the public was prepared to accept. The government reacted like it was holding a live wire. At first, if offered to eliminate the eight per cent sales tax on power bills. Then it cut 25 per cent from the cost of the bill.
In an attempt to keep all of this borrowing from appearing on the government’s own books, it created a separate entity to stack up the debt. The Liberals had by that time developed advanced expertise in making billions of dollars disappear. The idea was that the debt would build up, but future power users would have to pay it all back with interest, later on. That boomerang effect would have made future power bills wildly unaffordable, but that would be a problem for another government.
When the PCs took over in 2018, they found themselves in a difficult spot. The Liberals’ fake power prices had become the new normal. Restoring sanity to power bills would have made the PCs the villains who drove power bills through the roof. If that wasn’t problem enough, the PCs had railed against high power costs in opposition, campaigned on affordability and promised to cut power bills by an additional 12 per cent. That’s a promise the government has not yet kept and, one can only hope, never will.
So, the government now finds itself in the same position as a person standing on a land mine. As long as it doesn’t make a move, everything will be fine.
More .......
The Ontario government’s effort to eliminate its projected $9-billion deficit is a grim struggle that involves unpopular service changes, wage restraint and general penny-pinching. Imagine if there was one change that would cut that deficit nearly in half without raising taxes or taking away any services.
As it turns out, there is. Have you heard about the Ontario Electricity Rebate? That’s the one where the government subsidizes everyone’s power bills, so that we can all pretend that the cost of power is lower. The bill for this act of self-deception is expected to be $4 billion this year. That’s a heck of a way to spend money the government doesn’t have.
The PC government did not invent what was called the Fair Hydro Plan, but it has taken what is probably the worst policy of the former Liberal government and given it a brand new name. Same stupid content, though.
The Liberals, after years of merrily committing to high-priced power deals, finally realized that the cost of electricity had gotten to a number far, far higher than the public was prepared to accept. The government reacted like it was holding a live wire. At first, if offered to eliminate the eight per cent sales tax on power bills. Then it cut 25 per cent from the cost of the bill.
In an attempt to keep all of this borrowing from appearing on the government’s own books, it created a separate entity to stack up the debt. The Liberals had by that time developed advanced expertise in making billions of dollars disappear. The idea was that the debt would build up, but future power users would have to pay it all back with interest, later on. That boomerang effect would have made future power bills wildly unaffordable, but that would be a problem for another government.
When the PCs took over in 2018, they found themselves in a difficult spot. The Liberals’ fake power prices had become the new normal. Restoring sanity to power bills would have made the PCs the villains who drove power bills through the roof. If that wasn’t problem enough, the PCs had railed against high power costs in opposition, campaigned on affordability and promised to cut power bills by an additional 12 per cent. That’s a promise the government has not yet kept and, one can only hope, never will.
So, the government now finds itself in the same position as a person standing on a land mine. As long as it doesn’t make a move, everything will be fine.
More .......
nationalpost.com/opinion/randall-denley-liberals-screwed-up-ontario-hydro-and-now-the-doug-ford-has-to-clean-the-mess