I want to share a story.
In my driveway the other night, I was approached by an engaging door-to-door salesman with questions about my energy consumption. He wondered if I knew that Ontario was going “Green” and if I wanted to as well.
Speaker, this company was asking me to give them money, they use it to “go green” on my behalf and somehow I’ve bought my way out of my Carbon emissions. It would be easy. Like other companies, it would just go on my Enbridge gas bill.
I understood and I did not invite this stranger into my house to sign a binding and expensive scam contract.
But others do. Our vulnerable neighbours, seniors and new Canadians are signing these contracts every day. Mr. O’Boyle in Oshawa had his heat cut off because he couldn’t pay the over $300 a month tacked on his bill because of these contracts. Costs above and beyond his actual heating costs.
Our office works with families regularly trying to untangle these predatory schemes.
Companies like this prey on vulnerable neighbours. They look for people who don’t know what they are getting into. The company that came to my door has quite a track record. They’ve been fined by the OEB, and it doesn’t take more than a google search to see the litany of complaints that they leave in their wake.
They look for vulnerable populations who don’t understand their rights or obligations, their responsibilities as tenants, renters or homeowners. They prey on people who don’t understand.
I want to warn my neighbours. I also want my community to let my office know if they have been taken advantage of by these companies. No business in Ontario should be allowed to build their bottom line by preying on vulnerable people.
Thank you.