Better Farming - January 2017

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Better Farming January 2017 The Business of Ontario Agriculture 51
HOW IT WORKS
But guess what? My delivery
charge of $114.13 exceeded my total
usage charge of $112.85! Does this
make sense? Not to me.
I know that the delivery charge
includes the line loss charge. (The
latter charge used to be shown
separately on our bills.) To add
insult, we also have to pay the
“regulatory charges” that presum-
ably cover the cost of billing.
Then, let us not forget the HST
(harmonized sales tax) of 13 per
cent that has been added to the total
hydro bill. Many of us farmers have
been able to recover a portion of
that cost.
Other users have not been as
fortunate. But there is good news
for them. As of Jan. 1, the HST on
electrical bills is reduced by 8 per
cent. This is great news – especially
for low-income seniors.
What is in the future?
On Aug. 30, I attended an open
meeting organized by Jeff Yurek, the
MPP for Elgin-Middlesex-London.
He arranged to have the new Hydro
One Ombudsman, Fiona Crean, with
him to hear concerns from local
residents and to answer their ques-
tions. About 200 people attended the
meeting and the questions/comments
were many and serious.
Two issues stood out. First, many
seniors who are on fixed incomes
stated very clearly that they cannot
afford to pay their Hydro One bill and
still put food on their tables.
Secondly, there is an issue with
erroneous billing. Many commercial
operators talked about ridiculous bills
due to meter reading errors. These
operators also talked about closing
down businesses and/or moving to
Manitoba or Quebec where hydro
costs are much lower.
The provincial government
announced that it is going to buy
clean “hydro electricity” from
Quebec. For some of you younger
readers the term “hydro” is synony-
mous with electricity generated from
water falling to produce electrical
power using turbines like the ones at
Making the most of your
OFA membership
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A typical farm single
phase transformer.