Wednesday, January 24, 2007

There Is A Free Lunch, And You're Paying

If you live in Ontario and buy hydro, that is.

From a reader:

Ontario residents currently pay a debt retirement charge, "a charge per kilowatt hour of electricity consumed that is added to electricity bills to help pay down the stranded debt of the former Ontario Hydro". This $0.0070 per kilowatt-hour surcharge is added to every customer's monthly utility bill.

In his annual report delivered on December 5, 2006, Ontario A auditor General Jim McCarter announced that among a number of questionable expenditures was $127 million worth of goods and services using corporate charge cards, but with few slips or receipts to justify the charges.

A petition has been created requesting that the Ontario Ministry of Energy make a $127 million adjustment to compensate consumers for this unapproved use of taxpayer money, either by directly removing it from the current outstanding residual stranded debt or by a reduction of the monthly debt retirement charge.

To sign this petition go to http://www.petitiononline.com/ohdrc/petition.html.


TDPC encourages Ontario Hydro customers to get vocal about this misuse of their money.