When is that extra hydro bill relief coming? The province is working on it #onpoli pic.twitter.com/JSRWqS50ze
— NEWSTALK1010 (@NEWSTALK1010) November 21, 2016
"We're working on it".
That is the message from Kathleen Wynne after she called the high cost of turning on the lights at home her "mistake", conceding she had not paid close enough attention to the daily stresses in the lives of some Ontarians.
Wynne acknowledges that while upgrades to the province's energy infrastructure were necessary, she sees that they have been a financial burden to ratepayers.
Wynne promises more relief is coming but is saying little about what form it might take or whether it can be expected before or after this spring's provincial budget.
"I can't give you a specific time...but we're on this, we're working on this," Wynne told reporters Monday. "We're looking for ways to ease that burden on people and we'll do it as quickly as we can."
The government has already announced that starting January 1, the 8% provincial portion of the HST will disappear from hydro bills. The move is expected to save the average household about $130/year while setting the province back $1 billion.
Wynne defended offering relief while increasing user costs for things like renewing a driver's licence or registering a vehicle.
"Those fees for service are not at cost recovery and there needs to be a recognition that that's part of doing business in the province--that we need to be able to pay for all of those services that people can access."