NEWS:

PORT HOPE – Today, Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak and Northumberland – Quinte West candidate Rob Milligan announced that a PC government would provide immediate relief for families and seniors facing rising energy costs by removing the HST from home hydro and heating bills, and removing the debt retirement charge from home hydro bills.

An Ontario PC government will provide Ontario families with real, permanent household relief by:

• Removing the HST from residential hydro bills; the HST has made life unaffordable for many families. Combine that with expensive energy experiments and hydro bills are soaring.
• Removing the HST from residential home heating bills (natural gas and other fuels); we live in Canada where heating our homes isn’t a luxury. Increasing the cost with a tax increase is unfair.
• Removing the Debt Retirement Charge from residential hydro bills. We will remove the so-called “Debt Retirement Charge” from hydro bills. The full amount had been paid off since 2010 – yet the McGuinty government extended it to 2018.

Taken together, these three steps will give a typical Ontario household $275 in immediate relief from rising energy bills.

QUOTES:

“For eight years, billions of our energy dollars have been thrown away through Dalton McGuinty’s mismanagement and expensive experiments, and the result is skyrocketing rates that are making it harder and harder for families to pay their hydro bills. I will fight this unfair burden and make energy more affordable for Ontario families.”
-Tim Hudak, Ontario PC Leader

“I know that family budgets are stretched and it’s a struggle to balance work, family and the chequebook. Dalton McGuinty’s out of touch, and he’s forgotten what it’s like for families to cope. By eliminating the HST and Debt Retirement Charge from hydro and home heating bills, an Ontario PC government will put Ontario families first.”
-Tim Hudak, Ontario PC Leader

“Only a Tim Hudak PC government will provide the immediate relief on energy bills that hardworking Ontario families deserve. Our changebook commitment to remove the HST from hydro bills will help ease the unfair burden of Dalton McGuinty’s expensive energy experiments and make energy more affordable.”
–Rob Milligan, Ontario PC Candidate, Northumberland – Quinte West

QUICK FACTS:

• Under Dalton McGuinty, hydro rates have increased eight times since 2003 by a total of 84 percent, or a whopping 150 percent for families with activated smart meters.
• Despite promising Ontario families that his expensive energy experiments and Green Energy Act would only raise rates by 1 percent, Dalton McGuinty now admits in last year’s Fall Economic Update that bills will rise 46 percent by 2015.
• Even the Ontario Energy Board acknowledged Dalton McGuinty’s energy experiments were behind the latest May 1 hydro increase when they said new forms of power generation (as a result of the Green Energy Act) are costing more to produce.