The cost of electricity at Windsor Regional Hospital’s Met Campus has jumped nearly $1-million over a five-year period.
Based on information obtained by the NDP, the total billed amount for hydro at the hospital rose from $1,778,831 to $2,659,009 between 2011 to 2016. That's an increase of 49%.
“Health care is at a tipping point in Ontario… There have already been frontline workers laid off at many hospitals, and with skyrocketing hydro bills, hospitals are being squeezed tighter,” says NDP Leader Andrea Horwath in a media release. “How can the hospital be expected to continue provide high quality patient care when Premier [Kathleen] Wynne is squeezing them like this?”
On March 2, Wynne announced that her government would take action to reduce Ontarians’ hydro bills by a further 17%, on top of the 8% saving that resulted from the lifting of the provincial portion of the HST on hydro.
The NDP also released its hydro plan in late-February. The party claims it can cut hydro bills by 30% by scraping time-of-use premiums, cap profits for private producers, have rural residents pay the same delivery charges as city-dwellers, and reverse the sell-off of Hydro One.
To view a year-to-year break down of hydro costs at the Met Campus, click here.
-With files from Scott Kitching