Representatives from the Ontario Liberal government traveled to Windsor Thursday to explain how they plan to reduce hydro bills by 25%.
Bob Delaney, parliamentary assistant to the minister of energy, says payments for investments made in energy infrastructure will now be made over a longer time period. These investments total $50-billion in generation, transmission and distribution assets that Delaney says puts Ontario in a better position than many other jurisdictions in North America.
"Is it not more fair to take an asset, a generation or transmission asset, that's going to be used 20, 30, 40 or longer years and pay for it over the years that it's actually in service," Delaney proposes.
In addition he says the government has shifted social assistance programs for hydro payments from hydro bills to the overall tax rate.
"Some of the programs that assist people with affording electricity really shouldn't be on the electricity bills, they should be part of social services, so we should move them off of the electricity and on to social services costs," says Delaney.
Residents should expect to start seeing reductions by the summer months.
On Wednesday, the leader of Ontario’s New Democrats Andrea Horwath asked Premier Kathleen Wynne to officially table this new plan in the legislature on Monday.
