Tories, NDP promising relief for soaring electricity bills

Ontario’s opposition parties started the second week of their election campaign by targeting Liberal green energy policies, which they said are leading to soaring electricity bills.

PC Leader Tim Hudak said he would invest in nuclear power and import energy from Quebec and the United States — a move he said will keep energy costs under control and low enough to generate 40,000 new jobs.

He made the announcement at a campaign stop at a factory in Smithville, in the Niagara Peninsula.

“That works out to about $384 in savings for a typical family than the Liberal plan,” Hudak said at a news conference on Monday.

Hudak also said he would end subsidies for wind and solar power and cut the “bloated” bureaucracy at Hydro One and Ontario Power Generation to help lower rates.

“We need to pare down that massive hydro bureaucracy,” he said.

“They have 11,000 people in the hydro bureaucracy making $100,000 a year, can you believe that?”

Hudak also said his party would also reduce the number of provincial electricity agencies.

Last Friday, the PC leader drew fire from the NDP and Liberals for announcing plans to cut 100,000 public sector jobs if he’s elected premier.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is promising to eliminate the provincial part of the HST on hydro bills.

“Scrapping the HST off hydro bills will make it a little easier for seniors to keep the heat on when they’re worried about a huge bill that they can’t afford,” Horwath said at a campaign stop in Thunder Bay.

She said the move would save homeowners around $120 a year.

“Instead of making life affordable, the Liberals decided to add an unfair tax on top of the highest electricity rates in the country,” Horwath said.

“We’re going to take it off and make life affordable for families.”

At a campaign stop in Vaughan, Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne said hydro rates went up in large part because the government had to make massive investments to repair and upgrade Ontario’s electricity system after years of neglect.

“There’s a cost associated with that, and so we are working to make sure that there are programs and supports in place for people who are struggling to pay for their electricity,” Wynne said.

“But are we going to back away from clean, renewable energy? No, we’re not going to do that.”

Ontarians head to the polls on June 12.