Ontario tells utilities to stop winter disconnections of hydro customers or it will ban practice
Energy minister promised standalone legislation after pressure from both opposition parties and NDP objections to an omnibus bill which includes a ban.

thestar.com
By Rob Ferguson
Feb. 21, 2017

Ontario will ban winter disconnections of hydro customers Wednesday unless all local utilities in the province agree to stop the practice, Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault says.

In an about-turn from last week, Thibeault promised standalone legislation amid more pressure from both opposition parties and NDP objections to an omnibus bill whose measures include a ban.

“I would like to see it done as quickly as possible,” said the minister, who previously rejected putting the ban in a separate piece of legislation, saying it would take too long.

But, on Tuesday he said, “tomorrow it will pass.”

The legislation will be introduced - no objections expected from the Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats - if Ontario’s utilities don’t agree to voluntarily halt disconnections.

Thibeault said a “significant number” already have agreed to this.

“We have not had a ‘no’ from anyone yet.”

Opposition parties said the government was being heavy-handed by putting the ban in the larger Burden Reduction Act introduced last June. PC Leader Patrick Brown was “disappointed” the government voted against opposition bids for an immediate ban on Tuesday.

“They could have ended it today.”

Conservatives have supported the Burden Reduction Act, but the NDP has rejected provisions that New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath says will lead to the sale of Ontario Place and weaken workplace protections for workers.

“We don’t think that’s okay,” Horwath told reporters.

She said a voluntary ban by utilities doesn’t go far enough.

“It needs to be law here in Ontario that no utility can cut off anybody’s electricity during the winter months.”

Conservative MPP Todd Smith said the legislation on a disconnection ban would have been in place in time for winter if the government hadn’t buried it in the Burden Reduction Act as a “political carrot” that hasn’t worked.

About 60,000 hydro customers had their electricity disconnected for non-payment last year after hydro costs doubled in the last decade.

The Ontario Energy Board does not yet have figures for this winter.

Hydro One agreed before Christmas not to disconnect any customers this winter and re-connected about 1,400 while making arrangements for affordable re-payment plans with them.

The government has also promised another relief package for hydro users in addition to a waiver of the 8-per-cent provincial portion of the HST on bills that started in January.

That tax break is costing the treasury about $1 billion a year, and, Thibeault said, this points to the need for longer term “structural” changes in the electricity system to get costs down.

Ontario Power Generation, the Crown utility that owns nuclear plants at Pickering and Darlington along with other power-generating assets, wrote to Thibeault last week offering to reduce rates by 40 per cent in its latest application to the energy board.

“We understand the concerns of our customers,” chief executive Jeff Lyash said in a letter.

Thibeault said that’s the kind of action that’s necessary.

“They actually found ways to reduce their own costs . . . . That’s good news.”