“One thousand bucks is just insane, it’s more than my paycheque in a week by a few hundred bucks,” Joe Hebert said Tuesday of the sky-high electric bills that are arriving in this neighbourhood formerly known as The Villages, where 900 families have no choice but to heat their homes electrically.
“We just don’t know what to do,” Hebert said of the monthly bills that are hundreds of dollars higher than in previous winters due to rising electric rates and the coldest temperatures in 36 years.
[…]
They’ve already put extra insulation in the attic of their two-storey home that totals about 1,000 square feet. They don’t heat their basement and turn off the heat entirely overnight, meaning the wakeup temperature is around 12C. Hebert and his neighbours say the conservation measures suggested, such as putting in new windows and doors, don’t seem to help much.
h/t kcdist
Been there, done that, sort of. When I was living in Nova Scotia, electricity was the only option to heat my house and my bills reflected that. I move to Ont-scary-io only to see that the power rates are higher in order to pay for all those bird slicers. Well, I thought, at least I’m on the main natural gas route across Canada so it will be cheaper. I thought wrong. Union Gas, with the Ontario government’s blessing is raising rates April 1. Amazing how all the new found gas still results in my bill going up. worst of all, they don’t even have the nerve to tell us how much it is going up. It gets translated into ” the average user will only see a $$$ increase in their monthly bill” hokum.
Where’s a good place in Canada to live? Is any place still affordable?
In the 90’s, when I lived in BC, I got a pamphlet from BC Gas & Hydro called “Good News About Your Gas Bill”, which had 3 salient points:
1. Due to the decrease in global market value for natural gas, BC Gas & Hydro was paying much less for natural gas.
2. To make life easier for customers, they were amortizing the bill, so that monthly payments would not vary.
3. Due to (2), most customers could expect to pay a little more over the year.
So, they pay less, charge more, were so happy about it that they sent out a pamphlet to celebrate.
From the article:
“One possible solution for people who must continue with electric heat is investing in a latest technology heat pump, that uses electricity more efficiently to both heat and air condition a home”
Even high-efficiency heat pumps, require supplemental heat from, you guessed it, electric resistance heaters, whenever the outside temperature drops below 20F (-7C).
These people will send good money after bad.
Electrically heated homes have no value. Worthless.
They need to write off their loss and move.
Lawyer up and class action the provincial government as well as Hydro. There’s enough info out now to prove gross incompetence on the part of both government decision makers as well as upper management of Hydro.
Even sadder is the polls showing the corrupt,lying Liberal government of Ontario would win a majority if an election were held today. Wynne, the appointed leader, is spending like crazy in all the areas she needs support, it’s actually using tax dollars she doesn’t have to campaign for next election, she’s already spent $22 million on ads when the province hasn’t got a proverbial pot to p*ss in thanks to their management.
Small towns in BC Alberta and Saskatchewan are far more ‘affordable’ than big cities.
The problems in Ontario are directly caused by corrupt and misguided governments who pissed away tax dollars on Green BS instead of investing in more nuclear.
The people elected these idiots and now they will suffer the consequences of their ignorance.
In what passes for democracy, people get the government they deserve.
Just for a moment reflect on what would happened if that money wasted on wind/solar had been directed to development of Thoreum reactors…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLk46BZfEMs
$1,000 a month is peanuts.
Wait until the bills started coming in to pay for the massive Pensions & Retiree Health Care Benefits for all their overpaid Union guys.
Get ready to pay billions for hydro pensions
http://opinion.financialpost.com/2011/08/31/get-ready-to-pay-billions-for-hydro-pensions/
For Union guys like this one who is scheduled to collect an annual pension of $400,000
http://contests.eyeweekly.com/eye/issue/issue_01.11.01/news/murphy.php
Over the last couple of years, John Murphy, previously president of OPG’s largest union who became an Executive VP at OPG, was leading OPG’s pension reform review. Murphy was sent to fix a problem he had a direct role in creating. Although Murphy is now gone, which energy ministers were briefed on his work along the way?
http://theagenda.tvo.org/blog/agenda-blogs/guest-post-powerful-compensation-opg
That would be Thorium Nuclear Reactors…and I could not agree more.!
This is the BS we as Canaidans have to put up with you get a 2 bit PISSANTE GOOPH like McGuinty coupled with voters that dont know Sheet. Anyone in 2008/9 could have looked and seen what had happened to Spain when they tried the same garbage Green Alternative Energy. It DIDN’T Work.
325BILLION in the hole.
Unfreaking believable…
High time in this country for immunity of ALL kinds to be stripped from our “elected” officials.
High time in this country such that when you, Mr elected official want to spend OUR money – you will need Our approval on that exact thing by way of referendum or as an addon proposition when voting..much like what is done in the US.
What a bunch of (_i_)’holes.
I hope some of you in the Alberta Government read these comments and think real hard before you decide to start this foolishness or any other kind ogf Grande Scheme. there is only so mujch of this the people will take…disregarfd this and you will have REVOLUTION on your hands. GARANTEED.
Every cost aspect in all levels of governments, business and crown corporations downloads onto the backs of consumers rather than cutting back on their own costs. Eventually there are enough increases to break the camels back. No political party is offering the very simple solution…..less government empire building….less government, period. Most businesses have no choice but to pass on costs and the rest do it because they can and we let them. The fact that they are still gung-ho on windmills shows the disconnect with reality. Destroying the economic engine with taxpayers money and the truly scary part is they might be re elected. Much like Obama’s America there are now enough drones that rely on the status quo to insure the creeping disease of socialism continues to advance. But they don’t pay the hydro bills, utilities and ever increasing user fees. The end result is predictable and manifests itself in the Village’s electrical bills, which is just the canary in the cage for the rest of Ontario. Earth hour on Saturday. Make sure you pay homage to green energy.
I agree with the last sentence.
“And the cost of electricity is expected to rise by 42 per cent in the next five years.”
Why? Has anyone investigated this rise in the price of electricity?
I predict an increase in woodstove sales & installations.
Does anyone here know anything about thermal energy systems? I’ve heard conflicting reports about them.
Are wood burning stoves still legal in Ontario?
or are wood pellet burning stoves still legal?
All I can suggest to those people in Ontario paying through the nose for their bloated public service sector and associated pension debt is to find a first nations person, or the visible minority of your choice, and wheel them out (sorry for the awful comparison here) in front of the cameras, do it with another person in a couple of days, do this with the executive of a failing community center that’s dependent upon getting an electrical bill break… keep doing it until the authorities in charge of this are singled out and shown to be incompetent. Tears and anguish will be necessary on cue in front of the cameras.
Simply raging with your local MLA or mayor isn’t going to get you anywhere. They’ll only respond and do something about it if they feel the heat of depressed public opinion polls. Which is exactly what led to Alison Redford’s decision to step down here in Alberta. I can assure you that this was done early in the present mandate of the PC”s here so as to minimize the affect on the next gov’t. And noted that enough of her caucus was set to walk out on her over this.
They don’t have shame. Don’t expect it, or guilt. Only expect change when they feel the heat from your fire.
“The problems in Ontario are directly caused by corrupt and misguided governments who pissed away tax dollars on Green BS instead of investing in more nuclear.”
The problems in Ontario are directly caused idiots such as these voters in Windsor who voted for all this green s**t.
Same problem here in BC. In my case I only have access to electricity, no gas, and I am not allowed to burn wood.
When I built my home I accepted that I would be paying a bit more for energy, fine. But never in my life did I think things would get as bad as they have with the commie green approach to pricing energy.
Here in BC the Utilities Commission (which has never me a rate increase it did not like) has now introduced a two-tier rate structure, ostensibly to encourage “conservation”. Just another dumb, idiotic idea by the radical green lobby.
The net result is that my effective rate for hydro has gone through the roof to the point where it is simply ridiculous. My bill for the last two months was $3,0000!!
These idiots seem to completely forget that we live in CANADA, not the San Diego, and that we have to heat our homes to survive.
I hate every last one of these green bastards.
Ontariowe’s voters – going back to the days of Mike Harris – have mostly themselves to blame. Well, sort of…
Realistically one person’s vote, except under the rarest of rare circumstances is insignificant except for its emotional benefit to the voter. Thus voting becomes a gigantic flustercluck in the spewing out of emotions with precious little rational thought. Small wonder then that those who seek political office focus their attention on policies that pander to the emotions and ignorance of the voters. A flawed system at best.
This is why media pressure is needed. They’re not prepared to act until it’s front page news.
“Top of the fold” at National Post:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/03/27/ontario-police-pursuing-a-criminal-charge-against-mcguintys-chief-of-staff-over-gas-plan-scandal/
“Pressure is mounting for an election in Ontario after the governing Liberals were rocked by police allegations that former premier Dalton McGuinty’s chief of staff oversaw a mass purge of emails about the gas plant scandal.
Police allege in an unsealed search warrant that they believe that David Livingston gave an outside tech expert access to 24 computers in the premier’s office.
The OPP allege that David Livingston, former chief of staff to Dalton McGuinty, committed criminal breach of trust in giving an outside tech expert access to 24 computers in the premier’s office.
It’s claimed that Livingston sought permission to “wipe clean the hard drives” during the transition period between the McGuinty government and that of Wynne, who was elected Liberal leader Jan. 26, 2013.”
Is anyone going to ask if David Livingston, former chief of staff, showed up at work one day and decided to do this on his own accord? Paging Mr. McGuinty, paging Ms Wynne … how damaging does it need to be before they act? It’s the same as Alison Redford, nobody acts until they’re sunk in the polls.
Show a poll in the paper, ask the populace what they’d like, an election in may? No, alright how about an election in june?
“Ontariowe’s voters – going back to the days of Mike Harris – have mostly themselves to blame. Well, sort of…Realistically one person’s vote, except under the rarest of rare circumstances is insignificant except for its emotional benefit to the voter.
There is no, “sort of”.
Our peculiar form of democracy doesn’t restrict a voter’s input to an “X” on a ballot every four years. But we get the corruption and the waste and the criminal stupidity because a lazy electorate prefers it that way.
Marc:
Yes wood and pellet stoves are still legal, but more that Wynnguinty hasn’t gotten around to them yet. I heat a lot with wood but never,ever reveal that fact to any government fact compiler.
Still the green madness continues; a mammoth $1B wind factory in Huron Co started construction a week ago and already a giant lake of polluted surface water is flooding the area.
As of this afternoon Wynne may have bigger worries; McGuinty’s former chief of staff has been indicted for breach of trust. Still she refuses to resign; I really envy you Albertans, $45,000 and the premier is forced out? Not sadly in Ont.
madness in provincial paul-ticks.
I doubt it’d be a good idea to tell them you’re burning wood. I guess it’s BC where the practice of having new wood burning fireplaces is now banned.
Alison Redford didn’t resign because of the $45,000. She resigned because her sitting MLA’s said they’ve had enough, and the polls indicated that we in Alberta have had enough as well. The money was just the straw that broke the story onto the front pages of the newspapers / media.
Keep the pressure on, phone her office and tell them their well is poisoned.
Mail a rock to Queen’s Park with a note indicating your disgust. Signed, “a taxpayer”
Mail some plastic hand cuffs to Queen’s Park with a note indicating my disgust…
ect…
I think I’d forgo the hand cuffs; with the current premier one shudders to think of what use she might put them to.
What did you think was going to happen with mentally retarded liberals calling the shots?
Ontario voted these idiots in and Ontario is going to have to live with the consequences..
My fingers are to cold to sort my garbage.. The horror!
WOOD STOVE SALES HAVE BEEN BANNED CHECK IT OUT
The new fuel of the Twenty First Century is wood.
BC said above that he’s not allowed a woodstove, time to sell and move. Wood is what’s heating my shack right now, this minute. Propane heating bills this winter were every bit as bad as what this guy was complaining about with electric.
Joke is, I pulled an electric furnace out of this house and replaced it with propane several years ago. Surprise Mr. Phantom, didn’t help!
This might very well be the first tummy rumblings of the famine Kate keeps talking about. Two or three years of these kinds of ruinous heating bills are going to certainly put an awful lot of current homeowners out on the street. Wonder if they’ll keep voting Liberal after they go broke and have to sell their crappy Ikea furniture?
No, they aren’t. The wood stove guy in town here is very busy installing new stoves right now. Says he’s never worked so hard in his life.
Once a mindless society outsources all adult responsibilities to the state they really can’t complain any more because they have ceded their liberty. Ontario Hydro is a socialist institution and wasn’t created yesterday and everyone knows it’s a provincial body. It’s all for the greater good. One wouldn’t want a private gas-fired plant to come in an undercut all that costly socialist bounty based on eco-theocracy (sarc). You can vote Liberal, NDP and Conservative like 99% of the rest of the electorate and not much will change. The culture of liberty is foreign to most Canadians and without it, elections don’t matter. If libertarians posed a serious threat to the status quo, it would be a competition to see whether the Liberals could beat the Conservatives in stealing their (libertarian) platform.
Energy, like almost everything else in civilized society should be left to the private sector.
The only truthful spewage out of Dalton MacGuinty’s mouth was he wanted to “cultivate a culture of conservation”…the incredible price of elecricity from solar panels and windmills has made it come true.
I remember him saying on the TV news that this green energy crap was only going to add a couple of dollars to a power bill….BS. BS. BS. BS.
…put an awful lot of current homeowners out on the street… Thanks Phantom, a good pun really amps me up.
River Rat, I understand that geothermal works really well in Iceland.
I heat my house with wood. I will never stop using wood heat. They can pass all the laws they want and I will continue to ignore them.
” this green energy crap was only going to add a couple of dollars to a power bill….BS. BS. BS. BS.”
Now now. The commies wouldn’t purposely lie to you. He just forgot to mention that it was a couple of bucks per WATT of power. See? Not a problem. And not sarc,as that is the defense they would use if ever it went to court.
And funny how cavalier Nof60 is when it doesn’t affect s/he/it.
They’ve never heard of oil or propane furnaces? The high efficiency direct vent furnaces use a piece of PCV pipe as a chimney and require minimal space. Many propane furnaces need no electricity to run, as the fans are optional, and carburetor style oil burners are still available.
“These idiots seem to completely forget that we live in CANADA…”
We live in a country so abundantly energy-resource rich that we should almost be paying NOTHING for our power.
Geothermal, that’s the name of it! If it works in Iceland it should work here right? Can you explain it in layman’s terms?
marc, every heat source is still legal in Ontario though European-style outdoor wood stoves that heat water that is then pumped into the house are not allowed in towns due to the smoke.
That said about ten years ago the McGuilty liberals greatly expanded the Technical Standards & Safety Authority’s mandate in order to wage war on fossil fuels. The TSSA started by mandating yearly inspections of all propane and oil burning furnaces, fireplaces, water heaters, clothes driers, etc. Every fall you need an inspection or no fuel will be delivered to your house which is a massive waste of time.
Next they decided that furnace oil tanks had to be changed every 20 years, and all oil tanks where the age couldn’t be proven had to be changed immediately. I had to wait months in 2006 to have mine changed out because most of the oil tanks in the province needed to be changed out by a TSSA approved contractor. The Liberals also enacted pollution laws that demand that any petroleum spill be cleaned up by a TSSA approved contractor. In one case I know of a contractor’s backhoe blew a hydraulic line. To clean up a few gallons of hydraulic fluid required digging a 20ft deep hole, trucking the contaminated soil to an approved incinerator and then bringing in new fill. Total cost was $65,000 for the cleanup. Shovel and shut up is my new motto.
Insurance companies responded to the incredible costs of environmental cleanups by raising coverage on any homeowner with an oil tank, in some cases cancelling policies. My best friend was informed that he had to upgrade to a fiberglass tank at a cost of $3,200. He converted to propane instead as did two of my neighbours.
Wrong. The Hydro-electric Power Commission of Ontario was created in 1905 specifically for the purpose of preventing monopoly price gouging by the private producers who built the first generating plant at Niagara Falls. And it succeeded in that task. It’s a matter of historical record that electricity costs declined on a constant dollar basis year after year for more than six decades after WWI.
That all came to an end with the election of the Rae government in 1990. That government declared that there would be no further generating construction in Ontario; all new demand would be met by conservation and efficiency. And it clamped on such tight freezes on rates that Ontario Hydro was unable to manage the generational shift in its nuclear workforce, build Darlington and maintain its existing reactors. Same performance collapse happened in its coal-fired plants and Mattagami basin hydro dams.
Harris made the situation worse. Ontario Hydro’s generating facilities could not compete in a privatized system; it was designed for maximum cost efficiency with different plants being configured to provide different parts of the province’s electrical load.
The forced shutdown of seven reactors caused by the Rae government mismanagement meant Ontario was in a permanent electricity shortage during which electricity prices skyrocketed. The electricity policy disasters of Harris, in part inherited from Rae, were a large factor in the election which brought McGuinty to power in the first place.
By that time, Ontario’s industrial load was already stagnant under the large rate increases of the previous 10 years. The economic collapse of 2007-8 finished it off. In 20 years, Ontario went from the second lowest cost jurisdiction in North America to one of the highest. And it was the result of stupid policy making by all three provincial political parties. Ranting about socialism is utterly useless to understanding what happened and how Ontario got where it is. That you call it socialism shows that you have not the slightest understanding of what was in the Power Corporation Act and how Adam Beck structured it.
And Adam Beck was a conservative.
“Ontario voted these idiots in and Ontario is going to have to live with the consequences.”
No, urban city idiots voted for them.
Mind you, the Ontario PC’s are sitting and rotating on their own thumbs not bothering to put up a fight, because, well, the Ontario PC’s are progressives too, just like the Liberals. Says so right in their name.
The crazy is thick.
The US aircraft carriers carry enough fuel so as to not need refueling for + 20 years?
My understanding of fuel oil furnaces is slim as they’re not in widespread use here nor in Saskatchewan where I’m from. and some farms have them…
The oil tank isn’t pressurized? it’s gravity fed, or pumped into the furnace typically in the basement, so the only pressure is between the pump and the furnace, yet the vessel that holds the fuel oil itself is what is required to be replaced / inspected by gov’t approved contractor.
Unless you accept that the gov’t hates you, none of this makes sense.
move west.
Woodstoves are in trouble in the USA thanks to the EPA.
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/epa-wood-stove-ban/2014/02/23/id/554234/
In Canada they are moving in a less assertive fashion but this very cold winter might slow them down a bit.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/montreal-to-ban-wood-stoves-by-2020-1.1403350
Remember that nanny knows what’s best for you.
“Geothermal, that’s the name of it! If it works in Iceland it should work here right? Can you explain it in layman’s terms?”
Yes, geothermal is very effective here. Ground source geothermal heat pumps can produce 2-3 kilowatts of heat for every kilowatt of electricity they use, for normal ground temperatures. If the ground temperature is above normal then they produce even more for every kilowatt input.
pfft… GolfFoxtrotYankee
Insurance companies started the campaign to replace oil tanks. Idiot homeowners failed to do correct annual maintenance and drain the water out of the bottom of the tank. After a few years [quicker with cheap Chinese steel tanks] the tanks would rust through, the fuel would leak out, and the insurance company would get stuck with a huge enviro cleanup bill.
Once again we have laws enacted in an attempt to make the world idiot proof. However as we’ve seen on many occasions, human nature will always provide a better idiot.
“human nature will always provide a better idiot.”
Must be true,marc in calgary. You heard it direct from living proof. And tell me Nof60,just how does what happens in Morontarion affect you,or does it?
Don’t throw around personal insults as in the end it cheapens your arguments, and blows any shred of credibility. Intelligent people use facts, not personal insults. Try to keep up, eh? Further trolling will be ignored.
Actually it’s more nuts than that….
Because furnace oil gels in cold weather, the tanks were installed in basements, and the low pressure copper gavity line to the furnace mounted pump burner was mandated to be cemented into the concrete floor.
When that annual inspection/20 year replacement thing came about….the gravity line had to be a specified orange plastic line laying on the floor in harms way.
My past home had an oil furnace only a few years old when that occurred….no more oil delivery…..I burned wood….then insurance and the township inspected and woodstoves had to have a LEGIBLE CSA sticker and had to be vented by an insulated stainless steel chimney.
Then the insurance companies got into it. Many homeowners had to remove woodstoves and block up fireplaces to get fire insurance….
The house I occupied had earlier had the oil furnace sealed and annually inspected to prevent the furnace functioning (or alternatively the oil tank and residue oil removed by the ordained(gov’t approved) experts)…..
When I vacated, I took my wood stove and chimney…..and there sat the nearly full, 60 year old, oil tank……sound as ever.
Apparently if ya are not connected to Hydro One/Ontario Hydro you do not need a wiring permit/inspection…..they’ll fix that fer sure, fer sure.
Yes to both of your questions Marc. We purchased a bungalow with a wood stove installed in the basement. It wasn’t a great stove but the chimney is well install and up to par, so we replaced the wood stove for under couple of grand right away. Had a feeling that energy prices would skyrocket so we bought wooded land as well.
If they put any kind of restrictions on fire wood, we’ll clear cut ours to stay warm if we have to. There’s tones of forested area around us, so not too worried – yet!
All the recyclable paper stuff is used as starter material.
We’re in a rural setting so they’ll have to go after almost every home in the area, as the majority burn wood for heat. That’s not likely to happen, although I know in QC in some burrows, they made fireplace owners cement in their fireplaces or face repercussions.
We eliminated the pellet system for couple of reasons, they can control price and tax it and if your power goes out so does your heat.
(my spouse went through the ice storm was before we met, so he’s “prepared”) The back-up man with a plan… 🙂
I’ve heard you might sometimes need an alternate heating system to keep up in colder temps.
If you go to the internet for info, you’re either told how wonderful it works by those wanting to sell it to you or it doesn’t work by all the naysayers.
I’d like to hear from someone who has the system or personally knows someone who does.