Low-income consumers need help to conserve

Ontario Low-Income Energy Strategy resumes, coordinating gas and electric programs, conservation and energy efficiency retrofits, arrears management, security deposit rules, disconnection protections, and emergency assistance, guided by the Ontario Energy Board and Ontario Power Authority.

Ontario's electricity supply planner and energy industry regulator have been told to design, implement and fund an energy efficiency and conservation program for low-income residents by January 2011.

In letters to the Ontario Power Authority and the Ontario Energy Board, Energy Minister Brad Duguid ordered the provincial agencies to resume work on a province-wide strategy to help low-income consumers reduce their energy consumption and costs over time.

Last fall, former energy minister George Smitherman told the agencies to put their consultations and pilot programs on hold while the government worked on an integrated strategy for low-income energy consumers as part of its Green Energy Act.

In his letters, Duguid encouraged the agencies to build on their past work to establish a "robust and integrated gas and electric low-income energy strategy."

The program should include province-wide customer service policies such as rules governing security deposits, arrears management and disconnection emergency financial help for customers facing short-term crises and conservation and energy efficiency retrofits, the letters said.

The Low-Income Energy Network, a group of tenant, environmental and anti-poverty advocates, welcomed the move, citing the need for better customer service measures for vulnerable ratepayers.

"This is good news for low-income consumers who have been waiting too long for a solution to energy poverty," said Theresa McClenaghan, executive director of the Canadian Environmental Law Association. "They do not have the resources to pay for energy-saving retrofits, and are seriously challenged in meeting their basic energy needs, including healthy home temperatures and managing heating bills during dangerously hot summer days and freezing winter nights."

The group is also pleased that the gas regulator and electricity supply planner have been asked to co-ordinate conservation programs to address electricity needs across communities.

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