Puslinch councillors have deferred a decision on requesting the province equalize hydro costs until it has more information.
The item came up at the Dec. 7 council meeting.
In November the northern Ontario municipality of Greenstone (Geraldton) contended there is inequity between the cost of hydro for rural residents as compared to urban residents due to higher distribution charges.
Greenstone stated this practice targets and negatively affects rural residents, especially those who are already unable to pay for the high cost of hydro.
They then asked the province to re-evaluate the structure of hydro in terms of access and delivery and implement structural changes to address the unfair practice of charging more for delivery for rural residents.
Councillor John Sepulis stated he believed council should support Greenstone or pass its own resolution asking for equity for rural residents when it comes to hydro costs.
Councillor Matthew Bulmer noted there was a really good report presented to council at a previous meeting as to how this situation came to pass – with both the breakup of Ontario Hydro and the creation local distribution companies (LDCs).
“It makes it much clearer how things came to be.”
At the same time, Bulmer was uncertain the clock could be turned back.
“It’s a matter of population densities … and we did not have an LDC of our own.”
He favoured passing the resolution, but was unsure how effective it would be.
Mayor Dennis Lever noted the report previously mentioned was not looking to create more LDCs but rather an equalization of the rates.
Council’s decision was to pull the previous report and make make a decision at that time.
Lever agreed that report was reviewed by council prior to Sepulis’ appointment.
Sepulis said “Our rural residents are getting hit everywhere. Farmers are being hit with reassessments and now with hydro rates it’s a big burden.”
