It is an annoying line on their hydro bill each month, and the Ontario Progressive Conservatives want to know why Premier Dalton McGuinty is refusing to remove it.
PC leader Tim Hudak has called on McGuinty to come clean about why families will be charged until 2018 for the debt retirement charge that should be on track to be paid off next year. The opposition party is calling for a forensic audit to explain why Ontario families paid all of the $7.8-billion debt, but McGuinty plans to charge them for an extra six years.
For eight years now, Ontario families paid a debt retirement charge that amounts to between $67 and $84 a year on their hydro bills. The Ontario Electricity Financial Corporation (OEFC) has collected the fee since May 1, 2002 and the debt that fee was supposed to retire was scheduled to be paid off by 2012.
At a time of historically low interest rates, the McGuinty government is now saying the debt will not be paid until as late as 2018 – with no explanation why that date keeps getting pushed back – or where the money is going.
The Ontario PC caucus introduced a motion last year to bring in a forensic audit to show people what is happening.
“Premier McGuinty expects hardworking Ontario families to keep paying this charge every month for the next seven years, but he won’t say where the money is going and is trying to turn the debt retirement charge into a permanent tax grab,” said Hudak.
He added that the “Dalton McGuinty government expects hard-working families to pay this charge every month for an extra six years, and they don’t want to tell families what they’re doing with the money. That’s why we need a forensic audit.”
The debt retirement charge was created in 2002 as a dedicated revenue stream to pay off a residual stranded debt of Ontario Hydro of $7.8-billion by 2012.
The government first pushed back the repayment date from 2012 to 2014, and then until as late as 2018, with no explanation why, according to OEFC annual reports.
The Liberals used their majority to defeat the Ontario PC motion calling for the audit by a vote of 43-16.
