Any political party would of removed the 4.3 cents price freeze, any government would of bled to death. People were just niave to think that the subsidy for power could go on for much longer. The 4.7 cents is much more reflective of the going rate for electricity but still it falls short of exposing Ontarians to healthy market prices. 4.7 cents is dirt cheap for electricity, Since the Market deregulated in 2002 ontario has enjoyed the cheapest power prices in the Northeastern part of North America, if you live in New York city your electricty bill would be twice as much as they are now. But if you guys think life revolves around cheap electricy rates so you can max out your AC during the summer and leave your porch lights on during the day, then you should move to Quebec, they pratically give electricty away to residents for free. If you guys are pissed at the electricity price cap being raised then brace yourself because within a year or two the Price Cap will be removed entirely. This will surely happen because No new generation projects are being pursued in this artificially depressed electricity market, to attract private investment there has to be a healthy financial incentive. You gus might think, hell why doesn't the government just build more power plants so it can keep the price Cap? To build a power plant that can power 500 houses would cost $1 million dollars, thats 2000 per household. Do people really want to shell out big bucks to build a new power plant onlly to have government workers run it? Quite frankly the government does not know anything about electricity, they were correct in the first place to privatize the electricity market, and pull themselves out of an industry it has no knowledge of.
Seriously if you guys want to lower your bill then just use less electricity, conservation is the best solution. Everyone wins, you get lower bills, the enviroment wins and less of your tax dollars go to subsidizing electricity rates. People love to blame others, "oh the government is raising my electricity bill" no one ever says "oh the government is raising the electricity rate, and my bill is going higher because I am such a sloth and wish to leave the porch lights on during the day, have 3 freezers running when really all I need is 1". People should not blame the government for raising prices what they should blame the government for is not ensuring that a proper energy conservatin program was in place before privatizing the electricity market. If you are concerned about your bill call up your MPP and ask him what the Ontario government plans to do about energy conservation? The government is so occupied with its head up its arse that they have no clue what to do about energy conservation. More insulation and low power lights bulbs will help, but people need a proactive type of solution so that they conciously participate in the decision as to what this months electricity bill will be. Right now even if people wanted to lower theirs bills it is very challenging for 2 reasons;
1: no one knows what the current rate of electricity is, believe it or not the price of electricty fluctuates on a 5 minute basis, people need to know when prices are high so that they can conserve at that moment and shift their energy usage patterns to times when electricity prices are low.
2: even if you did shift your energy usage patterns from times of high prices to times of lower prices, the net financial benefit to you is insignificant because 99% of residents are charge the average price of electricity for that month regardless of when they used electricity. This is because the meter at your house only records how much power was used and not when the power was used.
As you can see I can write a whole essay on this subject because I am in the piower industry and I see all the stuff that is happening. In the end Ontarians have to push the government to develop a concrete energy conservation initative. Artificial price Caps will only make things worse in the long run.
