Put an end to Hydro One billing nightmares in the north: NDP

Queen’s Park – During Question Period today Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath called on the Liberal government to put an end to Hydro One billing nightmares for northerners.

“Ontario families are having a hard enough time paying their actual hydro bills without getting dinged for hundreds and sometimes thousands of extra dollars. Hydro One promised to fix the errors, but people are still being overbilled. Hydro One promised refunds, but people haven’t seen them,” said Horwath. As the Premier and the Minister of Energy downplayed the impact of Hydro One’s incoherent billing practices, the NDP Leader raised the plight of two northern ratepayers hard-hit by billing errors. “Simone Laferrière is a resident of Timmins. Her normal hydro bill is about $350 a month. This January, she received a bill that was three times that amount,” said Horwath. “Ina Lamoureux from Englehart was hit with not one, not two, but six bills, all on the same day. Hydro One had already tried to clear out her bank account last summer with a $1,500 bill that they admit was an error. However, they still will not give Ina her money back.” Horwath said that people who are already paying the price for cancelled gas plants, failed private power schemes and subsidized power exports have a simple question for this Premier “When will the government stop overcharging on their hydro bills and give them back the money that they are owed?”