As hydro bills continue to climb, Sarnia families are suffering

Today Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath sat down with Sarnia residents Shaun and May Evans to discuss how their skyrocketing hydro bills are affecting their family.

“The NDP has been listening to people like Shaun and May and have been putting forward solutions that will address the immediate needs of Ontarians who are finding it harder and harder to build a good life in our province,” said Horwath.  “We have a responsibility to the people of this province to make sure that we, as their representatives, are doing everything we can to make life easier, not harder.”

“I am very happy to have Andrea at our home today to see for herself how unaffordable our hydro bills have become,” said Shaun.  “We do our best to conserve as much as we can.  We are in arrears on our hydro account because the cost has gone up so dramatically and we couldn’t keep up.  We moved and got a roommate to try and make our bills more affordable but we are worried that our dream of starting a family is being put on hold because we just can’t afford everything that goes along with having a child.”

“I hear stories like Shaun and May’s regularly from people all over the province,” said Horwath.  “Hydro rates are too high, they have been for a long time and Kathleen Wynne isn’t doing much about it.  In fact, she is making it worse by continuing to sell-off Hydro One which will drive rates even further up.”

Shaun and May’s hydro bill has gone up dramatically over the past couple of years but instead of permanently taking the HST off hydro, the government is proposing a temporary rebate that they can’t count on.  Even in the face of a lawsuit, they refuse to stop the sell-off of Hydro One.

The NDP has called for the immediate and permanent removal of HST from Hydro bills and continues to push the Liberal government to stop its wrong-headed sell-off.