Long term energy plan unveiled

You’re in for a shock when you open your energy bills in the next few years. Hydro rates are rising around 33% over the next three years. But the Liberal government is trying to soften the blow saying the rate hike is less than the projected increase made three years ago.   Lisa Hepfner was at Queen’s Park, where the Energy Minister introduced the latest long term energy plan Monday.

One of the key tenets of this Liberal energy plan is conservation, so we reduce the amount of energy we need. So the plan comes with incentives for people to save power. Internet tools people can use to see exactly where their home energy costs are going and also homeowners would be able to compare their hydro costs with other homes in the same area code. There’s also a plan called on-bill financing that got a lot of attention.

If the Liberals are still in power in 2015, Ontarians will be able to borrow money from their hydro company to make energy-saving updates to their homes, then pay it back on their hydro bills. But there are no details yet on how it would work, or what sort of interest rates would apply. It’s an idea the NDP has floated.

Peter Tabuns, NDP Energy Critic: “We see it as a good way to build the economy. But there’s no numbers. What impact? What conditions are there going to be?”

Energy Services Association of Canada does something similar for businesses but says the government could do more to get people to save energy.

Peter Love is with the Energy Services Association of Canada: “The biggest thing is the off peak rates. They’re getting worse, now only point-8 per cent difference. Give people a bigger incentive”

The Liberals say the average homeowner who pays 138 dollars a month for hydro now would pay 170 dollars by 2017 and that’s less than the previous projections, which would have had Ontarians paying 154 dollars now, and 178 by 2017.

Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli said the Liberals had to increase costs, to mitigate problems inherited by the previous government: “We were in damage control. $31-billion invested to get rid of coal, go to renewables.”

He says the savings comes with conservation, and in not building two new nuclear reactors — instead the liberals will refurbish plants at the bruce and darlington. chiarelli says that extra power isn’t needed anyway. the tories say there’s a reason for that. Lisa MacLeod is the Progressive Conservative Energy Critic: “We’re the only government who thinks an economic downturn is a conservation plan. They’ve given up on economic growth.”

The Tories would build new nuclear reactors in anticipation of jobs and manufacturing coming back to the province. The government says that if it suddenly needs extra power, it has plans in place to buy it from neighbouring provinces.