More hydro news that will cost you $$$ and make your blood boil.

[RedSN]

Likened to pick-and-pay cable packages...

Now there's a great business model to emulate. (where is the head exploding smillie?)

...the government is looking to help consumers feel like they are saving money by paying in a way that makes sense for them.

"feel" like I am saving money!? By paying in a way that makes "sense" to me?

You want the bill to make sense? Remove all the extra pilled on charges that make no sense.

[1quikgt]

I don't want to "feel" like I'm saving money, I actually WANT to save money. How can one provinces electrical system be so fucked up?

[ZR]

In a single word........................ L I B E R A L S

[True Blue]

I'm curious, anyone notice this "up to" 25% saving on their hydro bill in the last couple of billings?

[ZR]

[WTF]

I'm curious, anyone notice this "up to" 25% saving on their hydro bill in the last couple of billings?

another one of Wynne-bag's "stretch goals" no doubt

[Old Fart]

Mine has gone down exactly 25%.

[ZR]

There is no low these pricks won't use to get over on us.

TORONTO - The Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government is flouting accounting rules and taking on an unnecessary $4 billion in extra borrowing costs — to be applied to future electricity bills — to keep the true cost of its Fair Hydro Plan buried, Ontario Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk says.
A battle between accountants is not usually the stuff of Hollywood blockbusters, but Queen’s Park was enthralled Tuesday as Lysyk and her experts faced off against the government and its counter experts.
While the Liberals tried to minimize the conflict as a mere accounting dispute, Lysyk said what was at stake was far more important as the financing manoeuvre allows the government to write its own budget bottom line.
“This is wrong,” she said.
Under public pressure to respond to soaring hydro costs across Ontario, Wynne earlier this year released a plan that reduced bills by 25% on average, and promised to keep increases to the rate of inflation for four years — in part by eliminating the provincial portion of the HST from bills.
The government also announced that it would open contracts it had signed with private power suppliers, such as Bruce Nuclear and wind and solar providers, and refinance those usually 20-year deals over a longer period to lower bills in the short-term.
However, instead of borrowing that money itself — the provincial government gets a really good rate — the Wynne team decided to ask Ontario Power Generation to borrow it at higher rates.
The difference adds up to an extra $4 billion in borrowing interest costs — for a total cost of $39.1 billion for the hydro plan — but means that extra red ink doesn’t show up on the province’s books, Lysyk said.
Internal government correspondence shows that was the goal of the financing plan, she said.
Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault said the government made a policy decision that the cost of refinancing electricity assets would be borne by the hydro ratepayer, not taxpayers, as has been the historic practice.
The government’s accounting method has been reviewed and approved by senior staff from several ministries, the cabinet office, Ontario Power Generation, the Independent Electricity Operator, and third-party consultants, including KPMG and Deloitte, he said.
Treasury Board President Liz Sandals noted that they also took hydro relief programs off of the electricity bill, and placed them on the government books, because that was a more appropriate way to record the expense.
“There was no fast ones being pulled at all,” Thibeault insisted.
The government is now estimating the cost of the Ontario Fair Hydro Plan (OFHP) at less than $20 billion.
Lysyk said she consulted with auditor generals from across Canada, and attending in support at her media conference was Tim Beauchamp, the recently retired director of the Canadian Public Sector Accounting Standards Board.
The provincial government’s method of accounting, a first in Canada for any government, is not yet carved in stone and the $4 billion can be saved, Lysyk said.
“There’s still time to fix it,” she said.
What the opposition parties had to say
The Ontario Liberal government “cooks the books” — spending up to $4 billion more than necessary to hide the true cost of its latest hydro scheme, Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown says.
By structuring the cost of the Ontario Fair Hydro Plan (OFHP) in such a way that it was off the government books — adding to borrowing costs but not showing up as more red ink in the provincial budget — the Liberals were essentially forcing taxpayers to fund their re-election campaign, he said.
“This is cynical politics at its worst, making up their own rules, charging Ontario families more to serve the partisan interests of the Liberal Party,” Brown said, shortly after a damning auditor’s report was tabled in the Ontario legislature Tuesday.
The Ontario Liberals, who ran a budget deficit for several years after the 2008-09 recession, announced in their spring budget that the books will be balanced for the upcoming fiscal year.
Provincial voters go to the ballot box this June.
NDP MPP Peter Tabuns, who also sided with the auditor general’s view that this type of accounting was wrong, said the government was attempting to book as an “asset” its ability to charge future hydro ratepayers more than their power will be worth.
“This was one of the most shameless displays I’ve ever seen from Liberal cabinet ministers,” Tabuns said, after Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault and Treasury Board President Liz Sandals defended their financing decisions. “They’re trying to make this whole thing to be a fight over accounting. The guts of this is that the government is spending $4 billion more in interest that we’re going have to pay for in our hydro bills, so they can move these numbers off their books so they can make it look like they’re not running a deficit.

[RedSN]

This should be no shock or surprise to anyone, especially the auditor general. It is EXACTLY what the Liberals said they were going to do: lower peoples electricity bills by "re-financing" the debt. It is still wrong, but it is not a surprise. They didn't magically wave a wand and make electricity 25% cheaper. They turned a debt into an asset, LOL. Supah Genius! My mortgage isn't a debt, it's an asset i just down own yet.

[ZR]

However, instead of borrowing that money itself — the provincial government gets a really good rate — the Wynne team decided to ask Ontario Power Generation to borrow it at higher rates.
The difference adds up to an extra $4 billion in borrowing interest costs — for a total cost of $39.1 billion for the hydro plan — but means that extra red ink doesn’t show up on the province’s books, Lysyk said.