Wynne defends 25% hydro rate cut: `All of those costs were on the shoulders of people today´
(The Star Food)

Premier Kathleen Wynne is making no apologies for the Liberals’ 25 per cent hydro rate cuts that a legislative watchdog warns will cost at least $21 billion over three decades.In the wake of Financial Accountability Officer Stephen LeClair’s report on the “Fair Hydro Plan,� Wynne emphasized that Ontario electricity consumers demanded and deserved relief.“You all read the newspaper, you listen to the radio and you watch television — you know the problems that families are having around the province paying for their electricity costs,� the premier told reporters Thursday in Timmins.That’s why the government moved forward with a rate cut that will see the average household’s monthly hydro bill drop from $156 to $123 once it fully takes effect next month.In a 15-page report released Wednesday, the financial accountability officer estimated the initiative would cost the province $45 billion over the next 29 years while saving ratepayers $24 billion for a next expense of $21 billion.Both the Progressive Conservatives and the New Democrats oppose the Liberal rate cut.But Wynne said the government has in effect renegotiated a mortgage so it will bankroll hydro infrastructure improvements over a longer time period in order to give customers a break now.“We’re talking about a 30-year window here. It took at least 30 years, probably 40 years, to let the electricity system degrade to the stage that it had in 2003,� she said, noting “we were having blackouts and brownouts around the province� before her party took office that year.“There were thousands of kilometres of line that needed to be rebuilt . . . that work hadn’t been done over those generations, so electricity costs were low over that period of time but the work wasn’t being done.�When her predecessor Dalton McGuinty came to power in 2003, Wynne said Queen’s Park began spending billio ...