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Hydro system improvements come at a cost: Flynn continued from p.1 · Empowering businesses to reduce their bill by up to 34 per cent through the expansion of the Industrial Conservation Initiative. All these changes are to take effect at the start of 2017. The Liberal government says it will positively impact about five million residential consumers, farms and small businesses, along with more than 1,000 industrial customers. While rising hydro rates have been a topic of concern to many Ontarians, Flynn said understanding how Ontario got to this point, requires looking back to the electrical system the Liberals inherited in 2003 when they came to power. Looking back to 2003 "Any objective analysis would tell you Ontario's electrical system wasn't in very good shape back in 2003. It wasn't really a system we could rely on. There were brownouts, blackouts. We were still burning an awful lot of coal. The future of the nuclear baseload was in question," said Flynn. "Over the past 13 years, we took that challenge up and decided the system had to be transformed, had to be modernized. Those improvements had to be made and we were determined to be the first jurisdiction in North America that got off burning coal... Though it was inexpensive and very dispatchable, we knew coal had 7 | Thursday, September 22, 2016 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com Any objective analysis would tell you Ontario's electrical system wasn't in very good shape back in 2003. It wasn't really a system we could rely on. Ontario Labour Minister/Oakville MPP Kevin Flynn some very dark sides to it from a health perspective and we needed to get off it and we did." While Flynn said these efforts stabilized Ontario's power supply and set up the province for the low carbon economy of the future, he acknowledged there was a cost to these investments and said the government recognizes these costs have put pressure on households and small business budgets. Ontarians could use some help "We've heard from Ontarians that they could use some help with those hydro bills... so I am pleased to be able to stand before you today and announce Ontario is going to be taking action to reduce electricity costs in a lasting, meaningful and permanent way," said Flynn. "Yesterday (Sept. 15), the Minister of Energy, Glen Thibeault, introduced the Ontario Rebate Electricity Consumers Act of 2016. What that will do is permanently rebate the provincial por- tion of the HST directly off the electricity bill of millions of families, farms, rural properties and small businesses throughout this province." The new measures come into effect Jan. 1, 2017 when the average Ontario family would see the savings reflected in their hydro bill. Flynn said the modernization of the Rural/ Remote Electricity Rate Protection would result in a 20 per cent decrease in electricity costs for more than 300,000 eligible rural customers. He said the government is also working on bringing natural gas to more rural communities to help further cut their energy costs. Is it enough? When asked if $11 off their monthly hydro bills is reduction enough for Ontario families, Flynn noted residents with higher hydro bills would see significantly higher reductions. "There is a cost to coming off coal, there is a cost to having clean energy and there is a cost to the health implications that perhaps aren't taken into account. When people are going into the hospital, when kids are dealing with asthma, there is a cost to dealing with that as well," said Flynn. "This is something the Province is able to do on a direct basis. It is something we are able to do very quickly. Are we prepared to look at other programs in the future? Absolutely." Flynn pointed out a review of energy costs found that only one province in Canada pays less for its electricity than Ontario and that is British Columbia. He said Ontario's electricity rates are about half of what would be found in places like Los Angeles, New York, Boston or Chicago. Halton MPP Indira Naidoo-Harris, who represents the Halton provincial electoral district including Milton and north Oakville, also praised the hydro rebate plan during a similar event in Milton. Conservative criticism In a press release issued earlier this month Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown called on the Liberal government to stop giving away billions of dollars in energy to competing jurisdictions. He noted in 2013 and 2014, Ontario gave away $1.2 billion worth of energy to neighbouring states and in 2015 an additional $1.1 billion. "Let's pose this question I found on a Liberal math test. If you pay 8.55 cents a kilowatt hour to produce energy in Ontario, and you sell that energy for 2.65 cents a kilowatt hour to New York, Minnesota, Manitoba, and Quebec, how much profit does Ontario make," asked Brown. 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