Queen’s Park – During question period today, Oshawa MPP Jennifer French demanded answers from Premier Wynne after sharing the story of a constituent whose power was shutoff despite the Liberal government’s promise to end all winter hydro disconnections.
“Georgina lives in Oshawa. She pays her hydro bill to a private company that sub-meters her apartment building, and not to the local utility,” said French. “This private company is regulated by the Ontario Energy Board, but they are not being told to stop disconnections, so Georgina has had her power cut off. What is the Premier going to do to get Georgina’s power back on?
After learning of Georgina’s circumstance, MPP French identified that Georgina and an unknown number of Ontarians fall under a loophole that has left them unprotected by the OEB order.
“The premier surely must have been briefed about this loophole, but she didn’t bother to fix the problem,” said French. “It looks like the Liberals were more interested again in scoring a political win, than really fixing the problem of winter disconnections.”
The loophole breaks the Liberal government’s promise to prohibit all hydro disconnections until April 30th. Premier Wynne passed on MPP French’s question to the Minister of Energy.
“It would seem that the Minister is also disconnected,” said French. “When did the premier learn about this loophole, and what is she going to do to close it?”