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Auditor’s report confirms ‘Fair Hydro Plan’ a sham, Pettapiece says

October 17, 2017

(Perth-Wellington) – The Liberal government’s so-called ‘Fair Hydro Plan’ will cost “up to $4 billion more than necessary” in interest alone, according to a new report from Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk.

The provincial auditor called the government’s scheme to pay for its short-term hydro rate cuts “needlessly complex.” She also blasted the government for “making up its own accounting rules” and “improperly” booking the $26 billion in debt the province is taking on. They did so in order to “hide from Ontarians the real financial impacts of its electricity rate reduction.”

“This report confirms what we’ve said all along: the Liberals are cooking the books,” said Perth-Wellington MPP Randy Pettapiece. “Their hydro policy is motivated not by the public interest, but by their own selfish political interest.”

“Evidence of the Liberals’ mishandling of the hydro file just keeps piling up,” he added.

The auditor’s report comes after a leaked cabinet document showing hydro rates set to rise dramatically after the next election. The document shows rates declining in 2017, only to rise slightly the following year. By 2022, however, rates are projected to spike.

Marked “confidential,” the document was presented to the Liberal cabinet in early March 2017.

Opposition leader Patrick Brown pointed to a series of mistakes the Liberal government has made on the hydro file:

  • Overpaying $9.2 billion for green energy contracts which were awarded to energy companies who donated $1.3 million in donations to the Ontario Liberal Party.
  • Creating a secret millionaires club at Hydro One, including paying the CEO $4.5 million
  • Hiding the egregious cost of the global adjustment on hydro bills
  • Shelling out $7 billion to purchase an American coal-burning utility, instead of cutting hydro rates
  • Wasting nearly a billion of surplus electricity last year alone.
  • Using $5.5 million of taxpayer funds to run political self-congratulatory ads promoting the hydro plan, instead of cutting hydro rates

“Looking at numbers like these, I think people will know who to hold accountable,” Pettapiece predicted.