Rickford's Fixing the Hydro Mess Act pledges to hold home electricity bills to inflation
“Hold residential electricity bills to the rate of inflation”
Ministry of Energy news release, · News release introducing Bill 87
What happened · Feb 16, 2022
The FAO found typical residential bills rose 4.3% in total from 2018 to 2021, less than Ontario inflation of 6.1% over those years, and the province now uses the Ontario Electricity Rebate to cap yearly bill growth at 2%. Taxpayers cover the difference.
Bill 87 replaced the Fair Hydro Plan with the Ontario Electricity Rebate (OER) on November 1, 2019. On February 16, 2022, the Financial Accountability Office estimated that a typical residential bill went from $116 a month in 2018 to $121 in 2021 (+4.3%). Over the same years, Statistics Canada's Ontario all-items CPI rose from 135.0 to 143.2 (+6.1%). The FAO reported that the province's policy is to set the OER each year so typical bills rise 2% a year, indefinitely. It estimated the OER will cost $45.4 billion from 2020-21 to 2039-40, and that replacing the Fair Hydro Plan adds $37.6 billion in provincial costs over that period. The province has kept adjusting the rebate, from 11.7% to 19.3% on November 1, 2023 and to 23.5% on November 1, 2025.