MANITOULIN—The Manitoulin Municipal Association (MMA) is requesting the Hydro One Ombudsman come to a public forum to discuss hydro rates and other areas of concern relative to Manitoulin Island. Meanwhile, the province’s Financial Accountability Officer (FAO) has confirmed that households in Northern Ontario are not being treated equally under the province’s energy system.
“I was reading in the September 7, 2016 edition of the Aylmer Express about a public meeting the local MPP of their Elgin-Middlesex-London brought together with Hydro One Ombudsman Fiona Crean on hand to address concerns of members of the pubic to hydro concerns,” Brian Parker told members of the MMA at a meeting last week. “The last time we had a person from Hydro One to a MMA meeting they only addressed the Hydro One billing process, but we need to get the Hydro One Ombudsman here to get our answers questioned and provide input.”
“Right now any complaint about Hydro One goes to the (Hydro One) Ombudsman and issues are handled from the inside,” said Mr. Parker.
“I support this idea (of having a public forum on the island with the Hydro One Ombudsman),” said Richard Stephens. “Hydro One is a big issue on the plate of everyone it seems these days.”
When asked how the meeting could be set up Mr. Parker explained, “at the meeting held down south it was an open forum, with a moderator on hand, with people being able to ask questions of the Ombudsman.”
The meeting held in St. Thomas, Ontario drew almost 300 people in attendance.
“So does everyone feel we should look into the process and go from there?” asked MMA Chair Ken Noland.
Mr. Parker said the open forum should be held in a central location, such as Manitoulin Secondary School. He will look into the process and how to invite the Hydro One Ombudsman and get back to the municipalities.
Meanwhile in the latest provincial (FAO) report, it was indicated that households in Northern Ontario paid over 25 percent more in home energy costs than households in Toronto, between 2012 and 2014. For electricity costs specifically, households in Northern Ontario paid over 45 percent more.
Vic Fedeli, Nipissing MPP,) told the North Bay Nugget in its September 27, 2016 edition that the financial accountability officer’s report reveals the shocking disproportionately negative impact the (Kathleen) Wynne government’s energy policies are having on Northern Ontario.
The Nugget reported that the Ontario Energy Board recently found 567,000 families were behind in their hydro bill payments at the end of 2015, owing a total of $172.5 million.
The OEB also revealed that nearly 60,000 residential customers were disconnected from their hydro services in the past year for being unable to afford skyrocketing hydro rates. As well, the Nugget reported that a number of questions have also been raised about the reliability of Ontario’s hydro system. The Annual Blackout Taser recently revealed the number of power outages across the province increased by 275 percent from just 2012 to 2015.
