Ford is making tenants more vulnerable to predatory sub-metering companies: Ontario NDP Energy critic

QUEEN’S PARK — Peter Tabuns, Ontario NDP Energy critic, said it’s simply wrong for the Ford Conservatives to roll back laws that protect tenants amid revelations about the predatory practices of sub-metering companies. According to a Global News report, students in Oshawa started receiving utility bills for two times the amount they had been paying when their property manager brought in a company called Wyse Meter Solutions. By passing Bill 66, the Ford Conservatives have removed the regulations that would have forced Wyse to justify the rates it was charging and would have protected tenants.

The Oshawa story follows a case of Brock University students getting charged for double their actual energy consumption. In the Oshawa case, the sub-meters that would have measured that were never installed. Yet, they received massive bills.

“Ontario families are already struggling to afford the high cost of hydro without getting shocked with bills that charge them for even more than their actual power use,” said Tabuns. “No one should have to worry about being taken advantage of by predatory sub-metering companies that are trying to gouge them.”

In theory, sub-metering makes it possible to charge tenants for their actual energy consumption. But with a lack of regulations protecting renters, Wyse Meter Solutions has been able to over bill students without having to justify their charges in public hearings – and in the Oshawa case, without even having sub-meters installed.

“The Liberals let Ontarians down by letting hydro rates skyrocket out of control and doing nothing to stop the sub-metering business from becoming the wild west,” said Tabuns. “The Conservatives are only going to make things so much worse by dragging us backward, rolling back laws that empowered the Ontario Energy Board to protect tenants from getting gouged by sub-metering companies.”

“Tenants deserve better than to be taken advantage of by predatory companies,” said Tabuns. “We should be doing more to protect tenants from predatory companies, not less.”