By Pema Lhalungpa
In March, the Ontario PC Caucus exposed the McGuinty Government’s plan to sneak in a $53 million hidden hydro tax and add it to the electricity bills paid by Ontario families this year. That was just the beginning.
Now the McGuinty Liberals want to extend the hidden hydro tax and even apply it to natural gas bills. The energy industry estimates Dalton McGuinty’s Hidden Gas Tax will cost families between $100 million or more in total, according to Consumers Council of Canada lawyer Robert Warren. And the money will go into general revenues, not conservation programs. It’s a tax grab, plain and simple.
In the next provincial election, Ontario families will have a choice between Dalton McGuinty, who thinks families have an endless ability to pay for his tax grabs and failed energy experiments, or a Tim Hudak Ontario PC Government that will give families a much-deserved break.
QUOTES
“Ontario families work hard and already struggle to pay the hidden hydro tax, the sweetheart deal the McGuinty Liberals handed to Samsung and the HST they tacked onto hydro bills. Dalton McGuinty thinks Ontario families have an unlimited ability to pay for his expensive energy experiments.”
--Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak
“A pattern has developed where each time Premier McGuinty wants another greedy tax grab he says it is for the environment. He scrapped eco-taxes after he got caught. Dalton McGuinty should scrap his hidden hydro tax grab now that we caught him again.”
--Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak
QUICK FACTS
Schedule D of the Green Energy Act makes it clear the hidden hydro tax will go into general revenues, not special conservation programs. Regulation 66/10 indicates the current $53 million hidden hydro tax only applies to electricity bills and only for this year.
Section 26.1 of the Ontario Energy Board Act allows the Government to add the tax to natural gas bills. And the Consumers Council of Canada predicted the McGuinty Government would impose similar levies on the province’s two big gas utilities, which would raise an additional $100 million or more. (Toronto Star, April 27, 2010)
Starting today, new winter Time-of-Use smart meter prices begin, effectively raising hydro rates by 24% between the hours of 7am and 11am, and again between 5pm and 9pm.
A study by the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters estimates the average Ontario family’s hydro bill will increase by $732 a year by 2015.
