Hydro bills to jump 0.9% in April
In its habitual April Fool joke on the populace, Hydro-Quebec will be increasing our bills by 0.9% this April. Industrial users will be held to 0.3%. The utility has also been allowed to start experiments with dynamic pricing next winter, which means some of us will learn to do our laundry in the wee hours. Nothing here about the STM’s massive Hydro bill, although I hope they get the industrial rate.
steph 21:40 on 2019-03-05 Permalink
Considering how HydroQuebec has a history of overcharging it’s customers, why is any increase acceptable?
Kevin 23:31 on 2019-03-05 Permalink
Because any profit goes into general tax revenue for the province, and it’s still the cheapest rates in North America.
That and the overcharge was all of $3.60 per month for 8 years, with the highest consumers paying more.
SMD 13:51 on 2019-03-06 Permalink
Cheapest in NA because we – the taxpaying public – paid for it. ConEd can charge what they want in NYC, they paid to build and maintain their infrastructure. What good was investing billions of public funds in creating a Quebec public electric utility if we get the same rate hikes as private utilities?
As for generating extra revenue, that is the crux of the problem. Hiking Hydro rates hits the poor disproportionally, thus creating a regressive tax. If the province needs those extra billions so badly, they should take it fairly and progressively off the income tax.