Here they go again
Posted Feb 23, 2011 04:38:42 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO – Hard-pressed electricity ratepayers in Ontario should brace for more price increases.
The Ontario Energy Board says utilities can raise rates to cover 18 million dollars in fines and court costs they had to pay after the courts ruled they were charging too high an interest rate on late payments.
The energy board is also expected to rule shortly on a request from Ontario Power Generation for a 6.2 per cent increase in electricity rates effective March 1st.
O-P-G says that increase would add about $1.86 to a typical homeowner’s monthly hydro bill.
The Liberal government has been under non-stop attack over rising electricity rates, but Premier Dalton McGuinty says he won’t be telling the O-E-B what to do on the rate hike request.
The New Democrats call the O-P-G rate request huge, and say it will have a crushing impact on families already struggling to pay their hydro bills.
The Progressive Conservatives accused McGuinty of treating Ontario families like they’re “bottomless A-T-M machines.”
Both opposition parties predict increasing electricity bills will cost the Liberals seats in the October 6th election.
