The Standard (St. Catharines)

Liberals must answer for their hydro blunders

- North Bay Nugget

We believe skyrocketi­ng electricit­y prices under Premier Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals are the most important issue facing Ontarians heading into the next provincial election.

Ontarians are being held hostage by rising energy bills, many forced to freeze in their homes in winter and swelter inside them in summer, for fear of ever rising hydro costs.

Of all the wasteful blunders the Liberals have committed in their 13 years in power — eHealth, Ornge, cancelled gas plants — the worst have been in the energy field, including their mad dash into unreliable and expensive wind and solar power, which wasn’t needed to close Ontario’s coal-fired electricit­y plants.

Out-of-control electricit­y prices are an assault on the middle class.

They have cost hundreds of thousands of Ontarians their jobs, as businesses close or flee for lower-priced jurisdicti­ons.

They endanger home ownership for seniors on fixed incomes.

They are driving many Ontarians into energy poverty, where they spend more than 10 per cent of their income to power their homes.

Energy poverty forces people to decide whether to eat, or light and heat their homes.

It’s a disgrace in a province where a thriving manufactur­ing sector was built on the slogan of Sir Adam Beck, the founder of Ontario’s hydro system, to deliver “Power at Cost.” Today, under the Liberals, we have an electricit­y system where prices are skyrocketi­ng while we have a huge electricit­y surplus — an indication of how completely they have distorted the market.

The Liberals have been repeatedly criticized by the auditor general for making wrong-headed energy decisions costing billions of dollars.

But when Ontarians ask the Liberals for help, or complain about ill treatment from Hydro One, which the Liberals have put beyond public scrutiny by selling 60 per cent of it to the private sector, they’re ignored.

Or sent form letters dismissing their concerns.

Enough is enough. It’s time to hold the Liberals accountabl­e, to make them explain how they will get us out of the mess they’ve created.

And if there is no plan, to make them suffer the electoral consequenc­es.

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