Ontario taking the debt retirement charge off residents' bills

Ontario Electricity Support Program offers bill credits to low-income households, administered by the Ontario Energy Board, providing affordability relief akin to the Ontario Clean Energy Benefit amid rising electricity rates and stranded debt charges.

Ontario intends to take the Debt Retirement Charge DRC off residential electricity bills, saving the typical homeowner $5.60 per month, after Dec. 31, 2015.

The province is also working with the Ontario Energy Board to develop the new Ontario Electricity Support Program to help make electricity more affordable for low-income families, amid an electricity price freeze that cut Hydro One profit as reported.

Quick Facts

For context, Ontario rate reductions for businesses were seen in 2021, illustrating how policy changes can affect bills.

-- The DRC would remain on all other electricity users’ bills, including large industrial users, until the residual stranded debt is retired – this is estimated to occur by the end of 2018, which is in line with the previously estimated date range published in the 2013 Ontario Economic Outlook and Fiscal Review.

-- Families with an annual income of $20,000 spend eight per cent of their income on electricity, and many householders pay up to $30 more a year to cover contracts, while families with an annual income of $100,000 or more spend less than two percent.

-- As noted in Achieving Balance, Ontario’s 2013 Long-Term Energy Plan, the province has undertaken a number of recent initiatives to mitigate electricity rate increases, including reducing Feed-In Tariff prices, amending the Green Energy Investment Agreement, negotiating new contracts with Non-Utility Generators with expiring contracts only if needed by the power system, introducing wind dispatch, deferring new build nuclear, and moving forward with early coal closure at Lambton and Nanticoke.

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