Government poll shows support for hydro rate cut, but concern over long-term cost
Wynne says Ontarians will feel better when they get a lower bill, but poll shows respondents split on the weight of the $25-billion extra cost falling on the next generation.

thestar.com
By ROB FERGUSON
March 14, 2017

Ontarians approve of Premier Kathleen Wynne’s promised 25-per-cent hydro rate cut by a wide margin, but are split on whether the $25-billion extra cost is good for the next generation, an internal government poll suggests.

Eighty-two per cent strongly or somewhat support the price break announced two weeks ago, 14 per cent were opposed and 4 per cent had no opinion, according to results obtained Tuesday by the Star.

Another 78 per cent see the cut helping their family budget and two-thirds felt it would make their bills affordable, while 52 per cent didn’t understand how the government could bankroll the measure.

The numbers came as Wynne travelled to Barrie to sell her plan, which will reduce rates starting in June but cost $25 billion in interest payments over the next 30 years as recent costs of modernizing the electricity system are spread over a longer timeframe.

Wynne said she hopes any cynicism about the break on skyrocketing electricity charges, which have left many residents and businesses struggling, will evaporate this summer.

“People don’t have their bills yet,” Wynne told supporters at a chocolate and cheese shop where the biggest bill the owners pay, aside from rent, is for hydro.

The premier denied her survival in a provincial election looming in 15 months was the reason for the cut, which includes instant rebates on the 8-per-cent provincial portion of the HST which took effect in January.

“If it helps people in their day-to-day lives, then that will mean it’s a success...what they feel about me or my popularity is actually beside the point,” said Wynne, who is struggling in public opinion polls behind Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown.

“People will make a judgment about whether it’s enough and you know the politics of it, but, for me, it’s about actually seeing those rates go down, so that people are better off.”

Results of the internal government poll, conducted with a sample size of 500 people on a rolling basis in the four days after the hydro plan’s release, were presented at last week’s cabinet meeting.

About 50 per cent of those surveyed expressed concerns about the $25 billion in interest costs that will burden ratepayers over the next 30 years, including children now in school.

Opposition parties have pounced on that part of the plan, saying it amounts to the Liberals penalizing the next generation for mistakes made in the last decade in revamping the electricity system.

Brown, who is yet to announce his blueprint to reduce hydro rates, has slammed the Liberal plan as “robbing Peter to pay Paul” and said deeper structural reforms are needed.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath has proposed cuts of 17 per cent to 30 per cent by allowing customers to opt out of time-of-use pricing, capping profits for private power producers, returning Hydro One to full public ownership and getting the federal government to scrap its 5 per cent HST on hydro.

In response to concern over the 30 years of interest payments, Wynne said its “unfair” to make ratepayers now shoulder the full burden of changes such as closing coal-fired generating stations and more expensive forms of renewable energy that will yield benefits for decades to come.

“People won’t have to disproportionately share a burden that should be spread over a longer period of time.”

Among other findings in the poll, 24 per cent of respondents were not aware of the promised hydro rate cuts, one-quarter said they find today’s hydro rates affordable, and 49 per cent said the plan will cause taxes to rise.