Eastern Ontario hospitals see climbing electricity costs

Hospitals in eastern Ontario (including Ottawa, Napanee, Cornwall and Kingston) that have reported data show an average 28 per cent increase in electricity bills TORONTO, ON: Documents obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) reveal that the electricity bills for hospitals in eastern Ontario have been increasing dramatically over the last five to six years. Today, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation is releasing data for the Royal Mental Health centre in Ottawa, the Lennox & Addington County General Hospital in Napanee, Kingston Health Sciences, Providence Care in Kingston, and Cornwall Community Hospital. The newly released documents show that the hospitals faced the following changes to their electricity costs:

This data is consistent with what CTF has found at hospitals throughout the eastern Ontario region. While Kingston is an outlier with a 4 per cent reduction to electricity costs, overall costs in the region have increased dramatically. Further, incomplete data for the 2016-17 fiscal year shows electricity bills rising again in Kingston. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation had previously released data for Ottawa area hospitals, as well as the hospitals in Kawartha Lakes, Glengarry, Renfrew, Pembroke and Brockville. Like the data released today, the data from these sites shows climbing bills, with one exception, in Carelton Place. Data for those hospitals can be found HERE. Overall, the increase for the thirteen hospitals in Eastern Ontario that provided data is 28 per cent over the reported period. “The story of hospitals across Ontario is of rapidly increasing bills. How are the hospitals in eastern Ontario expected to manage their budgets when electricity bills rise dramatically every year,” asked CTF Ontario Director, Christine Van Geyn. “The more these hospitals have to spend keeping their lights on, the fewer resources they have for patients.” Ontario has seen dramatic increases to the cost of electricity, with bills for residential consumers more than doubling in the last decade. On Monday November 27, the government announced that it would be spending $64 million this year to improve energy efficiency in hospitals. “It is obvious that the government is paying attention to our campaign about high electricity bills in hospitals, but spending more money on energy efficiency programs won’t solve the problem. We know from the data that many hospitals face increased bills even as they use less electricity. Hospitals are in the same situation that families across the province are in, where we are paying more to use less. Encouraging hospitals to save electricity is important, but we already know it won’t solve the problem. We need structural change,” concluded Van Geyn. The “Stop High Energy Bills” campaign is part a more than year-long campaign by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, and has included the release of documents showing electricity cost increases for hospitals. More information on those releases can be found HERE.

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