There’s good news and bad news for northern Ontarians. The bad news: hydro rates are set to go up yet again as new legislative changes come into effect this year. The good news: the debt retirement charge has ended, years after the province said it would be. However those savings will be counteracted by the end of the clean energy benefit, which was a rebate equal to about 10 per cent of a Hydro bill. Timmins-James Bay MPP Gilles Bisson says the only way to describe this plan is confusing. Bisson says what you’re gaining on one hand, you’re losing with the other. He says we aren’t anywhere farther ahead, and their fear is that electricity rates will only continue to climb.
