On May 11, 2017, the Ontario Government introduced Bill 132, which is
intended to implement the government's promised Fair Hydro Plan
(discussed in earlier posts,
here and
here). The main part of Bill 132 is the
Ontario Fair Hydro Plan Act, 2017, which is included as
Schedule I and is referred to as the Fair Hydro Act,
2017.
As set out in the accompanying News Release, the
legislation will lead to an immediate 25% reduction in electricity
bills as of July 1, 2017. This is to be achieved through
refinancing a portion of the Global Adjustment (GA), shifting the
cost of the Ontario Electricity Support Program (OESP) and Rural or
Remote Rate Protection Program (RRPP) to be funded from taxpayer
dollars and rebating the provincial portion of the HST.
Importantly, in addition to the immediate adjustments to
electricity rates, the new legislation allows the government to
prescribe the level of future changes to electricity rates and it
also allows for an additional
