The MPP for Nipissing is asking people not to get fooled by the Premier’s 25 hydro cut announcement last week. Vic Fedeli says one reason why our power is so expensive is we produce energy we don’t need then sell the excess to Quebec or the U.S. at a discount. Fedeli says we did that just last Thursday where Ontario produced 30,000 megawatts of power, used only 18,000 and sold the surplus. Fedeli says despite that the Premier says she understands why electricity is expensive, she continues to make the problem worse. He says on March 3rd, a day after announcing the 25 percent cut, the provincial government signed another energy contract.
Fedeli says we can truly lower energy rates by stop signing new energy contracts, stop the further sell-off of Hydro One and rein in the utility’s corporate executive pay. The Tory finance critic says what the top people at Hydro One make is through the stratosphere compared to other provinces. Fedeli says the CEO at Hydro One earns a $4-million annual salary while the pay for the same people are Hydro Quebec and B.C. Hydro is $400,000. Fedeli says last week’s 25 percent hydro cut by the Liberals will add billions of dollars in interest in order to spread today’s rates over the next several decades.