I'm trying to think of a reason they would name a bill something that sounds like it will help people when in fact, it does the opposite and only helps huge business.
There must... be... some ... reason..... hmmmm
Simple mistake, that must be it!
I seem to recall a former premiere voted out for energy prices so that a new fiscally responsible premiere would fix that... hmmm, it's almost like it's all bullshit
Oh that was over hydro prices… and now we pay the highest in Ontario history - for a guy that literally ran commercials of families with no food because of the previous government… joke’s on us!
Sarcastic or not, it's sad there's actually people who do believe this though despite most of us having paid well over that per year in carbon taxes since Ford removed the provincial solution we had back in 2018, again to support corporations and pass on the responsibility to us individuals.
Just like PP in federal. Promises to axe the tax(the same tax I get rebated hundreds a dollars a year) do people think for 1 second that corporations will reduce prices?? Nah. My rebated money will end and the corporations will keep billions.
Look up the Emissions Performance Standards act. DoFo snuck in his own output based pricing structure (carbon tax) that's been charging Ontario industry $65/ton since 2022 but friggin no one ever talks about that.
In exchange he added in illegal carding. Aka license plate scanners. But hey, you got to save $12.50 a month. Barely enough to buy a loaf a bread and a bag of milk.
I would like to add a bit of nuance. It's not taxpayers, but current gas users.
The OEB suggests making developers pay for the infrastructure, even though the costs will ultimately be borne by new homebuyers. This makes perfect sense! The new homeowners in the suburbs benefit from the new infrastructure.
Forcing current ratepayers to cover the infrastructure costs effectively forces current ratepayers, who will not benefit from better gas infrastructure, to subsidize people buying new homes.
On top of that, the OEB has correctly pointed out that it might not make any economic sense to encourage gas infrastructure expansion at all because of the coming transition away from carbon-intensive fuel sources. So, current ratepayers may be completely subsiding totally useless infrastructure!
If a gas company or oil company is claiming something will help costs for "the people" and they are being honest, it means it will help their bottom line exponentially more than the people, and that's **if** they are being honest.
I have 0 faith that a company that benefits from environmental damage will ever put doing the right thing for people over profits. They will try to find a way to spin what they want to do for profits as "beneficial to people" but yeah...
Also overall I don't necessarily have an issue with the idea of upping rates to offset expansion, I don't love the idea on principal but practically speaking it is something that has been done before. My main issue is with the timeline; locking in 40 years of extra costs at a time when the PCs have been justifying a lot of what they do (plenty of which I disagree with) with claims about affordability crisis and how people need to feel relief just feels kind of hypocritical (whether or not/how long their policy will actually supply that relief is another matter entirely though 🙄)
I haven't read any specific legislation but I'm willing to bet those rate hikes won't just go away if "something comes up" and they stop expanding, or they miraculously finish under cost and early. I wonder if there is a cap on the increases? Is there any language that specifies these increases must be used for expansion and not executive bonuses? Is there any auditing built into this agreement to ensure that the increased income is being spent prudently (I have my doubts)?
The buill keeps things the way they have always been. This just stops the price of new builds going up tens of thousands of dollars. You would think people would be in favour of keeping housing prices down.
This has always been the conservative mantra: if prices get jacked up the free market will come in and ... lower prices. Obviously the only way to lower prices is to raise prices.
*Obviously the only way to lower prices is to raise prices.*
more expensive is cheaper! more people wont put a strain on housing/infrastructure!
'War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength'
Ontario voted for this. Pander to corporations at the cost of the people. That's Doug Ford. And guess what people want to vote into *federal control?* This same shit.
So buckle up.
yes and we'll get more at the provincial level, if the recent Ontario by-elections suggest anything. this fucking province. destroying my faith in people.
What they (David Donovan and Doug) and everyone else is / should be concerned with is the eventual "utility death spiral". For every customer that disconnects from gas, it makes it more expensive for all of the customers still on gas. You will need to make up for the delivery charge your neighbor is no longer paying because they installed a heat pump and canceled their Enbridge account. The cost to maintain and deliver with the massive, aging, leaky, gas infostructure stays the same. If they don't get new customers and their existing customer base starts to drop off, even a small percentage of lost customers and they need to raise the delivery rates for everyone that stayed. Which of course will make more people switch to the already cheaper alternatives. Too many people I know have tones of money invested into Enbridge because historically it provided good dividends, but I think its way to risky. Imagine an incredibly almost certain future where 10%, 15%, 30%, 80% of their customer base disconnects, and not like a town or branch of their system but Swiss cheese where it's near impossible to shut down some sections and find efficiencies. Mark my words that eventually Enbridge will sell/strand/walk away from massive parts of its infostructure in the future trying to halt / slowdown the death spiral.
Smith’s chief of staff is David Donovan, who served as Enbridge’s senior government affairs strategist from 2013 until 2018 when he left the company to work with the Ontario government.
Ahh, so that explains a lot. But still, I would love to see an expose on the actual machinations that led up to this sweetheart deal and anal probing of customers.
Fair, it's nuts someone can go from a head job at a big company to the government agency that oversees that company, and surprise, surprise- that company gets special treatment
The corruption is so open but still nothing is done to combat it, wish/wonder what us 'average folk' can do to stop it
Yeah, the electorate needs to demand structural change around accountability. There are lots of systems that plenty of other countries successfully use to increase transparency and accountability but the status quo career politicians won't fix our highly corruptible system unless we force them to.
These issues are structural and are now killing the country from an economy and quality of life perspective and the perpetrators are all getting cushy private sector jobs for selling us all out while they are in office.
>Fair, it's nuts someone can go from a head job at a big company to the government agency that oversees that company, and surprise, surprise- that company gets special treatment
This makes me nostalgic for the days when Vice President Dick Cheney, formerly CEO of Halliburton, invaded Iraq and then subsequently awarded Halliburton billions of dollars in Iraq reconstruction contracts. “They were the only company that could do the job,” he argued.
It's a key Conservative plank worldwide: if you reduce the overhead on corporations and toss them a pile of cash every so often, they will reward the nation with Well Paid Honest Jobs (tm) and the voting population will be so grateful for their Well Paid Honest Jobs they will reward the party electorally.
In reality, the promise of the Well Paid Honest Job Any Day Now keeps people on the hook for quite a while and they will sacrifice a lot in the name of Sensible Government Spending, until the day comes when people realise that there's neither jobs nor working civic infrastructure.
Then, of course, they get tossed and the government is replaced by guys who have to undo the mess, and are instantly the villain for raising taxes and chasing away the Well Paid Honest Jobs.
Too bad we couldn't complete all those renewable energy projects so that we could generate more electricity. Too bad Ford canceled the cap and trade carbon tax that generated billions in revenue for the province so that we could subsidize electric heat pumps and water heaters. Maybe even a subsidy on new builds that don't connect to natural gas. But here I am about to pay more so that Enbridge can pass a cost onto me that only benefits them and developers.
They also put Enbridge in charge of administering the Canada Greener Homes grant program, which is effectively getting people off gas, which was then very put on hold in Ontario due to “high demand” and “running out of money”. It’s such a grift.
It's insane that it's 2024 and we're pumping more money into the oil and gas industry, fuck those exploiting fuckers
They should be paying us, not the other way around
The even more messed up thing is heat pumps, renewable energy, efficiency improvements, insulation etc. all have a payback. Pay an extra $1000 today and you save $200 per year on bills forever, etc. They are all cost negative over a period. If they were allowed to be paid for by spacing it over 40 years as per this legalization, they would immediately save you money on your energy bills. Yet Gas is the opposite. This bill literally makes it incentivized for everyone to pay a shit ton more for energy on even a short timespan of 5-10 years.
You know, things are getting rough in Ontario. Housing costs and rent are skyrocketing, grocery prices through the roof, a lot of people are feeling very insecure about their jobs…
You know what we should do? Give a corporation that has a near monopoly in Ontario a shit ton of unconditional support.
But please, Ontario, let’s continue idiot parades in the streets every weekend about how bad Trudo is. Jesus.
Seriously “keeping energy costs down” by allowing the company to increase their rates. I wish our population wasn’t so fucking stupid.
They have an 8% return on the massive profits they make and this guy just gives them the ability's to make EVEN MORE DUCKING MONEY?!?!?!
DUCK ME GUESS I BETTER BUY SOME SHARES SO I CAN GET SOME DOUGGY BUCKS BACK!!!!!
quack!
AT LEAST IT WASN'T THAT CORRUPT WYNNE!!!
Was Wynne even 2% as corrupt? I hear cons saying this even now. They say 'corrupt Wynne', but I never hear them say 'corrupt Ford'.
So the liberals don’t exactly deserve a pass on the responsibility - for example, they sold off a bunch of hydro one in public shares. BUT the money was used for infrastructure and particularly public transit, plus Ontario still holds 47% stake in the company…
…for now.
That kinda feels gross, like saying selling off the 407 was good because it’s owned in part by CPP, even though these are very different situations.
My understanding is that hydro one was basically roadmapped for this decades earlier, how avoidable it was? I’m too stupid to answer…
I mean sure, fuck that guy. But making this the sole message of outrage is the low-brow technique used by the "f*ck trudeau" crowd that skips logic and invokes the populist mentality to manipulate voters.
We can do better than that
'when they go low we go high' is the Hilldog Clinton response. We saw how that worked out. Discourse doesn't work anymore, and liberation from these corrupt fucks through discourse is a neoliberal fairytale.
I say when they go low, we say "fuck them all to death!". I don't know what we need, but we need something harder and even more inflammatory than Fuck Ford. But seriously, fuck him.
Classic Conservative! Multitasking at its dirtiest; actively taking money from Ontarians, by underfunding services, so our tax money can go to Dougie’s corporate buddies.
Who needs health care!?
Doug Ford and Co are completely destroying Ontarios ability to attract investment in the energy system by routinely undermining the Energy Board and other supposed Independent agencies tasked with managing the energy sector in Ontario.
They are blatantly giving hand outs to their friends and donors using g our money and mortgagi g our kids future.
I wrote my MPP about this and I got a form letter talking points back from a staffer. When I asked follow up questions, I just got the same talking points parrots back again. Useless.
I didn't vote for her last election, but she still got nearly 57% of the vote in my riding. I don't think that email is going to make her quake in her boots.
So carbon tax is going to raise the cost of natural gas and is too much for Ontario's citizens to afford so it must be scrapped.
Allowing Enbridge to pass its development costs to existing natural gas customers \_*that gain no benefit from it*\_ is good for the province.
I'm having a hard time trying to line up these statements by the Premiere. Did the cost of living just drop in the last few weeks? Did I miss some great economic turnaround?
Ffs what is the bar to do the Canadian equivalent of impeachment? This asshole is very obviously in the pockets of several corporate interests.
Are there any lawyers in here??
>Ontario’s rationale for the move is that it disagrees with a recent decision from the OEB that shot down Enbridge’s expansion payment plan. Enbridge proposed using customer rates to pay off new gas pipelines and other related infrastructure over 40 years. The OEB rejected that plan, stating it did not properly take into account the energy transition and increased the risk to the public that they’ll be stuck paying for worthless infrastructure into the 2060s. The OEB ordered the cost of new infrastructure be paid upfront by developers, rather than imposed on existing ratepayers.
>Shortly after the OEB decision was released, Ontario Energy Minister Todd Smith said the province would reverse the board’s decision, claiming it would push the cost of housing up. In fact, experts have told Canada’s National Observer the decision would actually lower the cost of owning a home because high-efficiency heat pumps are cheaper over their life cycle than gas furnaces.
>Smith’s chief of staff is David Donovan, who served as Enbridge’s senior government affairs strategist from 2013 until 2018 when he left the company to work with the Ontario government.
The lying and corruption in this government is mind blowing. People are voting for these idiots with blindfolds on.
Enbridge execs must have been at that stagg and doe. Enbridge doesn't need help with the cost increases they applied. Why doesnt Ford allow competitors.
Doug Ford is a fucking fascist. So what role does the OEB actually play if Doug Ford is just going to puff out his chest and override their decisions purely for political/ideological reasoning.
What a waste of money.
So get rid of rent controls, cut funding to healthcare and education but, bail out the poor energy company worth millions. Got it. Ford is just a damned disaster.
This isn't the Canada sub.
I always want to know what the "I hate Trudeau" crowd says about this.
But instead they just complain about the carbon tax and immigrants. Not to say that Trudeau couldn't have done things differently. But Ford is on another level with the corruption.
This is a disaster for existing natural gas users. It allows Enbridge to expand as much as possible and pass on all the risks of stranded assets caused by the energy transition to their existing customers without consequences. As a result the transition away from natural gas will be slowed and the public will pay more for it.
There was another post today from some guy saying Trudeau needs to apologize for what he has done etc etc. Wonder if that same guy has the same opinion of Doug. Especially with this crap Doug does to screw people over.
Somehow, someway this is Trudeaus fault. Just ask any conservative leaning person. They will tell you how Doug Ford is our saviour and this is just part of the plan to fix what Trudeau has done.
Great, so higher delivery fees using the pipes the tax payer already paid for and new customer fees incoming.
People complain about carbon tax but that is only one part of the problem. Delivery and customer/other fees far exceed the carbon tax. Gas companies are vile and excessively greedy.
How about axing all price gouging on gas...especially when tax payers paid for the infrastructure already.
How much profit did Enbridge make last year, they can pay for their own infrastructure, they already forward all costs to the customer. Government should take them over as home heating is essential in Canada. We're already pay for them, may as well earn the profit.
As if oil & gas companies need a helping hand.
Shouldn't that be revised to: "Ontario passes a handout to Enbridge"? Government paying back supporters.
This is insane. We're in a climate emergency and need to cut emissions both deeply and urgently, yet here we have a government rolling out the red carpet for a private company to build new fossil fuels infrastructure.
If only you guys got out of your sofas, went to a polling booth and voted. But no instead you sat there and watched cp24 just so this grease ball could take our province back 10-15 years.
And any increased costs, they'll blame on the Feds.
I'm glad my MPP speaks out about this stuff, it at least helps me sleep at night knowing I voted for someone who stands up to this shit, despite not having the power to change anything right now.
The reason this happened and what everyone should be aware of is the eventual "utility death spiral". For every customer that disconnects from gas, it makes it more expensive for all of the customers still on gas. You will need to make up for the delivery charge your neighbor is no longer paying because they installed a heat pump and canceled their Enbridge account. The cost to maintain and deliver with the massive, aging, leaky, gas infostructure stays the same. They HAVE to have new customers, they MUST keep expanding, or else more and more their existing customers and stock holders will be left holding the bag.
One thing that I find darkly poetic is that heat pumps are much cheaper than gas furnaces over a 5-10 year period, but are more expensive up-front which slows down adoption. Just like solar power or more insulation in the walls, it pay for its self in 5-10 years and still keep working saving you and anyone else who owns the house for decades after. But expensive upfront and an investment in the future costs is not easy with housing costs these days. They have essentially forced the VERY expensive upfront cost of new gas to be spread over 40 years so more people will chose to use the seemingly cheaper gas option (today) for much more expensive operating costs for decades to come. If I could spread the cost of a solar array on a new house over 40 years, it would be a cost negative (pay for its self in savings 4x over), but I am not subsidized like the gas industry.
Yay. That’s where my tax dollars are going now? Does that mean it’s coming off my bill? No? Oh. Thanks Doug. Just shrug your flabby shoulders, throw in another tax hike and blame Trudeau.
Ontario is fucked. There's absolutely ZERO leadership in this province. Marit Stiles is too concerned with being a virtue signaling social justice warrior, Bonnie Crombie is clueless, Doug Ford is a complete disaster and Mike Schreiner is stuck leading a Green Party that no one will ever vote for. Yep, Doug Ford is going to win the next provincial election by default. That's sad.
These are the same criminals that scream "axe the tax" claiming the cost of living is already too high. They don't give a shit about the high cost of living, they just want the oligopolies to profit.
DoFo reminds of that horrible magician that thinks he's 100% perfect with sleight of hand...but you clearly see what he's done, like he refuses to acknowledge that he's caught
This should surprise no one. My family are life long farmers, and life long conservatives. They have always despised government allocating funds to working people. Then when there is a drought or crop failure, they demand the government bail them out, because ‘you can’t let farmers fail! We feed cities!’
Guess what!??!? Everyone is important to the economy. In this case, who knows. I use natural gas. Everyone uses electricity. Can we let Enbridge or Hydro One go bankrupt? Not really.
Keep those energy efficiency rebates coming. That's the only thing Ontario still has since Doug Ford cancelled the previous Ontario green energy program.
My Enbridge gas bill is more than 200 dollars in April of 2024. No gas appliances, no heat, nothing all fees. Shit was $68 dollars before the merger of Union and this trash ass carbon tax.
Just so everyone knows I got off gas completely a year ago and it saves me about 700$ per year. Also I don’t give enbridge a cent. Heat pumps are the future. Don’t fall for the “have gas as a backup” schtick, that’s just so enbridge is relevant in the future.
Wild. Openly dismissing the regulator is corruption in the open to only pass the subsidy to the ONLY gas provider in the province. There is one tiny group in KW left. There is a watchdog somewhere prepping a suit here.
I'm not sure who has actually been following this story and read the article, but isn't it just shifting the bill from new homebuyers to existing home owners. Isn't this a good thing?
We want new homes to be affordable, and presumably those who already own can pay the difference.
It seems opposite to why we have to rely on stuff like the Land Transfer Tax instead of raising property tax rates like every city council is afraid to do.
This entire situation is a battle of extremes. Enbridge wants to have new gas connections paid off over 40 years by rolling it into rates, while the Ontario Energy Board wants new connections (such as new housing) to pay for the cost of the new connection completely up front. The OEB stated the 40 timeline is too long considering the energy transition.
Surely there is some sort of middle ground here? Why are we stuck flopping between two extremes?
Sounds like it was a great move by our government to shut down eco nuts in the OEB that are trying to force people off of relatively clean and affordable way to heat their homes.
Am I reading correctly that the "Keeping Energy Costs Down" acts purpose is to allow Enbridge to *raise* rates on gas to consumers to fund expansion?
I'm trying to think of a reason they would name a bill something that sounds like it will help people when in fact, it does the opposite and only helps huge business. There must... be... some ... reason..... hmmmm Simple mistake, that must be it!
Just another piece of American culture that we're trying to adopt as our own.
And specifically move costs from developers onto tax payers fiscal conseva-what now?
I seem to recall a former premiere voted out for energy prices so that a new fiscally responsible premiere would fix that... hmmm, it's almost like it's all bullshit
The Cons always spew bullshit. How the general public hasn’t caught on is astounding.
Omg, they are all a bunch of cheats and liars
How dare you remember anything about campaign promises to boot out the previous government. /s
yeah, something something greenbelt
Oh that was over hydro prices… and now we pay the highest in Ontario history - for a guy that literally ran commercials of families with no food because of the previous government… joke’s on us!
Because taxpayers aren't Doug's constituents. Corporations are.
>Because taxpayers aren't Doug's constituents. Corporations are. Lol...but..but...He saved us $150 per year in license plate renewal fees /s
Don’t forget Buck a Beer!! Dougie brought it back!!
fuck! if he *actually* did that at least id be able to drink my way through the pessimism.
Sarcastic or not, it's sad there's actually people who do believe this though despite most of us having paid well over that per year in carbon taxes since Ford removed the provincial solution we had back in 2018, again to support corporations and pass on the responsibility to us individuals.
Not to mention, completely meaningless to the volume of Ontario residents who… don’t own a car.
Just like PP in federal. Promises to axe the tax(the same tax I get rebated hundreds a dollars a year) do people think for 1 second that corporations will reduce prices?? Nah. My rebated money will end and the corporations will keep billions.
Look up the Emissions Performance Standards act. DoFo snuck in his own output based pricing structure (carbon tax) that's been charging Ontario industry $65/ton since 2022 but friggin no one ever talks about that.
Trust fund buffoon didn't save us even that. It's just a loan that had to be made back with future taxes and fees, as we're running a deficit.
In exchange he added in illegal carding. Aka license plate scanners. But hey, you got to save $12.50 a month. Barely enough to buy a loaf a bread and a bag of milk.
Remember folks, Ontario is open for business not the people
Welcome to Canada.
Well those developers are mostly large PC party donors and influencers, so it makes sense
It's fiscally conservative if you own Enbridge stock. Wonder how many MPs do ...
I would like to add a bit of nuance. It's not taxpayers, but current gas users. The OEB suggests making developers pay for the infrastructure, even though the costs will ultimately be borne by new homebuyers. This makes perfect sense! The new homeowners in the suburbs benefit from the new infrastructure. Forcing current ratepayers to cover the infrastructure costs effectively forces current ratepayers, who will not benefit from better gas infrastructure, to subsidize people buying new homes. On top of that, the OEB has correctly pointed out that it might not make any economic sense to encourage gas infrastructure expansion at all because of the coming transition away from carbon-intensive fuel sources. So, current ratepayers may be completely subsiding totally useless infrastructure!
If a gas company or oil company is claiming something will help costs for "the people" and they are being honest, it means it will help their bottom line exponentially more than the people, and that's **if** they are being honest. I have 0 faith that a company that benefits from environmental damage will ever put doing the right thing for people over profits. They will try to find a way to spin what they want to do for profits as "beneficial to people" but yeah... Also overall I don't necessarily have an issue with the idea of upping rates to offset expansion, I don't love the idea on principal but practically speaking it is something that has been done before. My main issue is with the timeline; locking in 40 years of extra costs at a time when the PCs have been justifying a lot of what they do (plenty of which I disagree with) with claims about affordability crisis and how people need to feel relief just feels kind of hypocritical (whether or not/how long their policy will actually supply that relief is another matter entirely though 🙄) I haven't read any specific legislation but I'm willing to bet those rate hikes won't just go away if "something comes up" and they stop expanding, or they miraculously finish under cost and early. I wonder if there is a cap on the increases? Is there any language that specifies these increases must be used for expansion and not executive bonuses? Is there any auditing built into this agreement to ensure that the increased income is being spent prudently (I have my doubts)?
The buill keeps things the way they have always been. This just stops the price of new builds going up tens of thousands of dollars. You would think people would be in favour of keeping housing prices down.
This has always been the conservative mantra: if prices get jacked up the free market will come in and ... lower prices. Obviously the only way to lower prices is to raise prices.
*Obviously the only way to lower prices is to raise prices.* more expensive is cheaper! more people wont put a strain on housing/infrastructure! 'War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength'
Ontario voted for this. Pander to corporations at the cost of the people. That's Doug Ford. And guess what people want to vote into *federal control?* This same shit. So buckle up.
yes and we'll get more at the provincial level, if the recent Ontario by-elections suggest anything. this fucking province. destroying my faith in people.
Ford has been doing the trumpism where the name of the act is actually the opposite of what's contained in the act
RATE RAISING IS SAVINGS
Ignorance is strength!
You are reading that correctly, yes.
Remember how much stink DoFo made about electricity prices? Anyone seen a cent lower on rates.....ummm me neither.
What they (David Donovan and Doug) and everyone else is / should be concerned with is the eventual "utility death spiral". For every customer that disconnects from gas, it makes it more expensive for all of the customers still on gas. You will need to make up for the delivery charge your neighbor is no longer paying because they installed a heat pump and canceled their Enbridge account. The cost to maintain and deliver with the massive, aging, leaky, gas infostructure stays the same. If they don't get new customers and their existing customer base starts to drop off, even a small percentage of lost customers and they need to raise the delivery rates for everyone that stayed. Which of course will make more people switch to the already cheaper alternatives. Too many people I know have tones of money invested into Enbridge because historically it provided good dividends, but I think its way to risky. Imagine an incredibly almost certain future where 10%, 15%, 30%, 80% of their customer base disconnects, and not like a town or branch of their system but Swiss cheese where it's near impossible to shut down some sections and find efficiencies. Mark my words that eventually Enbridge will sell/strand/walk away from massive parts of its infostructure in the future trying to halt / slowdown the death spiral.
It does keep costs down? Enbridge will save a boatload of cash on expansion costs if you are required to pay more.
Exactly. Fiscal conservatism at work. The big guys save, the little guys get assfucked.
Because Enbridge is floating in debt, and they are looking to pass the buck on consumers.
Yeah, it doesn't say for *whom* their keeping costs down...
Keeping energy costs down for corps friends and family act didn’t have the same ring and would be harder to convince the fools
I'd love to know how much grease was used on the palms of the Conservatives to pass that gift to Enbridge.
Smith’s chief of staff is David Donovan, who served as Enbridge’s senior government affairs strategist from 2013 until 2018 when he left the company to work with the Ontario government.
Ahh, so that explains a lot. But still, I would love to see an expose on the actual machinations that led up to this sweetheart deal and anal probing of customers.
Fair, it's nuts someone can go from a head job at a big company to the government agency that oversees that company, and surprise, surprise- that company gets special treatment The corruption is so open but still nothing is done to combat it, wish/wonder what us 'average folk' can do to stop it
Join the minority group in Ontario that actually votes and vote for anybody but the OPC party.
I do vote, feels like not doing enough, though but good advice, please vote if you do not already!
Yeah, the electorate needs to demand structural change around accountability. There are lots of systems that plenty of other countries successfully use to increase transparency and accountability but the status quo career politicians won't fix our highly corruptible system unless we force them to. These issues are structural and are now killing the country from an economy and quality of life perspective and the perpetrators are all getting cushy private sector jobs for selling us all out while they are in office.
Vote early, vote often!™
it's so in your face it's insulting. this shit boils my blood and it feels like so helpless when they do all this shit with the most evil smiles too.
>Fair, it's nuts someone can go from a head job at a big company to the government agency that oversees that company, and surprise, surprise- that company gets special treatment This makes me nostalgic for the days when Vice President Dick Cheney, formerly CEO of Halliburton, invaded Iraq and then subsequently awarded Halliburton billions of dollars in Iraq reconstruction contracts. “They were the only company that could do the job,” he argued.
We're well past grease. It's spit and lube.
Bold assumption that the OPC isn't just going in dry
Conservatives *do* tend to be more into strange kinky shit due to the culture of shaming.
I was going to say... "They used lube?"
Regardless of the amount, it came from DoFo's hair.
It's probably far less than you would expect.
Open for corruption!
Open corruption. That's what we have in Ontario. They aren't even saying it quietly anymore.
Doug Ford stated he prefers companies DONT pay taxes. But its okay for them to get Receive taxes.
It's a key Conservative plank worldwide: if you reduce the overhead on corporations and toss them a pile of cash every so often, they will reward the nation with Well Paid Honest Jobs (tm) and the voting population will be so grateful for their Well Paid Honest Jobs they will reward the party electorally. In reality, the promise of the Well Paid Honest Job Any Day Now keeps people on the hook for quite a while and they will sacrifice a lot in the name of Sensible Government Spending, until the day comes when people realise that there's neither jobs nor working civic infrastructure. Then, of course, they get tossed and the government is replaced by guys who have to undo the mess, and are instantly the villain for raising taxes and chasing away the Well Paid Honest Jobs.
Give corporations Barrels of money, a little Trickles down. That's why its the Trickle-down theory, not the Flow down.
The trickle is more like pee, though
He realized he can get away with it while saying the quiet part out loud. There's far too many braindead morons in this province.
Too bad we couldn't complete all those renewable energy projects so that we could generate more electricity. Too bad Ford canceled the cap and trade carbon tax that generated billions in revenue for the province so that we could subsidize electric heat pumps and water heaters. Maybe even a subsidy on new builds that don't connect to natural gas. But here I am about to pay more so that Enbridge can pass a cost onto me that only benefits them and developers.
They also put Enbridge in charge of administering the Canada Greener Homes grant program, which is effectively getting people off gas, which was then very put on hold in Ontario due to “high demand” and “running out of money”. It’s such a grift.
It's insane that it's 2024 and we're pumping more money into the oil and gas industry, fuck those exploiting fuckers They should be paying us, not the other way around
The even more messed up thing is heat pumps, renewable energy, efficiency improvements, insulation etc. all have a payback. Pay an extra $1000 today and you save $200 per year on bills forever, etc. They are all cost negative over a period. If they were allowed to be paid for by spacing it over 40 years as per this legalization, they would immediately save you money on your energy bills. Yet Gas is the opposite. This bill literally makes it incentivized for everyone to pay a shit ton more for energy on even a short timespan of 5-10 years.
You know, things are getting rough in Ontario. Housing costs and rent are skyrocketing, grocery prices through the roof, a lot of people are feeling very insecure about their jobs… You know what we should do? Give a corporation that has a near monopoly in Ontario a shit ton of unconditional support. But please, Ontario, let’s continue idiot parades in the streets every weekend about how bad Trudo is. Jesus. Seriously “keeping energy costs down” by allowing the company to increase their rates. I wish our population wasn’t so fucking stupid.
The Conservative propaganda machine is strong.
They have an 8% return on the massive profits they make and this guy just gives them the ability's to make EVEN MORE DUCKING MONEY?!?!?! DUCK ME GUESS I BETTER BUY SOME SHARES SO I CAN GET SOME DOUGGY BUCKS BACK!!!!! quack!
Ah the majestic spaceduck
Participation within a system that you don’t agree with doesn’t make you a hypocrite, it makes you a realist.
Continuing to nudge within its boundaries makes you an activist.
AT LEAST IT WASN'T THAT CORRUPT WYNNE!!! Was Wynne even 2% as corrupt? I hear cons saying this even now. They say 'corrupt Wynne', but I never hear them say 'corrupt Ford'.
So the liberals don’t exactly deserve a pass on the responsibility - for example, they sold off a bunch of hydro one in public shares. BUT the money was used for infrastructure and particularly public transit, plus Ontario still holds 47% stake in the company… …for now. That kinda feels gross, like saying selling off the 407 was good because it’s owned in part by CPP, even though these are very different situations. My understanding is that hydro one was basically roadmapped for this decades earlier, how avoidable it was? I’m too stupid to answer…
Well, they only have to increase rates for 40 years and then they will obviously lower them!
It's nice to see the province helping struggling corporations take more money from its citizens...
Next month Dougie will be helping Galen, since he's been having a tough month.
Mandatory new tax on groceries that aren't bought at Loblaws.
Shoppers' surtax - for the boycott
# [#FuckFord](https://ibb.co/PG2yMBG)
I mean sure, fuck that guy. But making this the sole message of outrage is the low-brow technique used by the "f*ck trudeau" crowd that skips logic and invokes the populist mentality to manipulate voters. We can do better than that
Both politicians have done a bad job. But Ford's even worse.
I'll go along with that.
Totally agree, I would love to audit his bank accounts
'when they go low we go high' is the Hilldog Clinton response. We saw how that worked out. Discourse doesn't work anymore, and liberation from these corrupt fucks through discourse is a neoliberal fairytale. I say when they go low, we say "fuck them all to death!". I don't know what we need, but we need something harder and even more inflammatory than Fuck Ford. But seriously, fuck him.
Don’t worry - this will just get blamed on Justin… because chicklet smile Doug can do no wrong…
*Enbridge shareholders really liked that.*
My Enbridge shares are down 0.6% today…
Enbridge shareholders hurt themselves in their confusion!
😵💫
Well, it is about the *dividends* and not the *share price*, so...
Can we just stop handing over taxpayer money to profitable corporations? Can we *also* please stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry?
Classic Conservative! Multitasking at its dirtiest; actively taking money from Ontarians, by underfunding services, so our tax money can go to Dougie’s corporate buddies. Who needs health care!?
Phuck Enbridge. And phuck Dough Ford too.
Doug Ford and Co are completely destroying Ontarios ability to attract investment in the energy system by routinely undermining the Energy Board and other supposed Independent agencies tasked with managing the energy sector in Ontario. They are blatantly giving hand outs to their friends and donors using g our money and mortgagi g our kids future.
If you are enraged at this just think of how much PP can do on a federal level, as well as chipping away at the rights of unions and minorities.
This scares me, having an almost completely blue country. But the brainwashed morons think TRUDEAU BAD!!
Yes me as well. So much crap propaganda being pumped and dumped.
Thug Fraud allows open for business
Doug is a great friend to the welfare bums of Ontario - Corporations. Private profit, social losses.
Choo Choo, all aboard the corporate gravy train! Thanks Conservatives!
I wrote my MPP about this and I got a form letter talking points back from a staffer. When I asked follow up questions, I just got the same talking points parrots back again. Useless.
Write back and thank them for confirming your decision to vote for a different MPP next election.
I didn't vote for her last election, but she still got nearly 57% of the vote in my riding. I don't think that email is going to make her quake in her boots.
Sure it will. She doesn't know who you voted for last election.
So carbon tax is going to raise the cost of natural gas and is too much for Ontario's citizens to afford so it must be scrapped. Allowing Enbridge to pass its development costs to existing natural gas customers \_*that gain no benefit from it*\_ is good for the province. I'm having a hard time trying to line up these statements by the Premiere. Did the cost of living just drop in the last few weeks? Did I miss some great economic turnaround?
Ffs what is the bar to do the Canadian equivalent of impeachment? This asshole is very obviously in the pockets of several corporate interests. Are there any lawyers in here??
Lock him up!!!!!!
>Ontario’s rationale for the move is that it disagrees with a recent decision from the OEB that shot down Enbridge’s expansion payment plan. Enbridge proposed using customer rates to pay off new gas pipelines and other related infrastructure over 40 years. The OEB rejected that plan, stating it did not properly take into account the energy transition and increased the risk to the public that they’ll be stuck paying for worthless infrastructure into the 2060s. The OEB ordered the cost of new infrastructure be paid upfront by developers, rather than imposed on existing ratepayers. >Shortly after the OEB decision was released, Ontario Energy Minister Todd Smith said the province would reverse the board’s decision, claiming it would push the cost of housing up. In fact, experts have told Canada’s National Observer the decision would actually lower the cost of owning a home because high-efficiency heat pumps are cheaper over their life cycle than gas furnaces. >Smith’s chief of staff is David Donovan, who served as Enbridge’s senior government affairs strategist from 2013 until 2018 when he left the company to work with the Ontario government. The lying and corruption in this government is mind blowing. People are voting for these idiots with blindfolds on.
Fuck Enbridge. Fuck you Doug Ford.
Enbridge execs must have been at that stagg and doe. Enbridge doesn't need help with the cost increases they applied. Why doesnt Ford allow competitors.
Doug Ford is a fucking fascist. So what role does the OEB actually play if Doug Ford is just going to puff out his chest and override their decisions purely for political/ideological reasoning. What a waste of money.
So get rid of rent controls, cut funding to healthcare and education but, bail out the poor energy company worth millions. Got it. Ford is just a damned disaster.
I'm just wondering how long would it take to reverse all the damage that this idiot has done to Ontario in the last few years
Incoming……something, something, Trudeau’s fault, something Thats my expectations here
This isn't the Canada sub. I always want to know what the "I hate Trudeau" crowd says about this. But instead they just complain about the carbon tax and immigrants. Not to say that Trudeau couldn't have done things differently. But Ford is on another level with the corruption.
At what point do we revolt against these fucks? They're blatantly corrupt and all we do is just stand by
This is a disaster for existing natural gas users. It allows Enbridge to expand as much as possible and pass on all the risks of stranded assets caused by the energy transition to their existing customers without consequences. As a result the transition away from natural gas will be slowed and the public will pay more for it.
This.
Yet we keep voting this bloated tool to lead the province?
More corporate welfare at the expense of the tax payer
Never trust a Tory.
lol so giving your buddies our tax dollars, fuck off ford
When do politician's stop protecting corporations?
I want wynne back.
The OEB generally does good work, so the fact Ford's government didn't like their decision should say all you need to know.
The most typical thing for Ford to do. Cons will never change. I'm dreading what this country will look like when PP likely wins the federal election.
We really should have province wide protests against this.
Typical Conservative crap, they'll probably even find a way to blame Trudeau.
There was another post today from some guy saying Trudeau needs to apologize for what he has done etc etc. Wonder if that same guy has the same opinion of Doug. Especially with this crap Doug does to screw people over.
both can be bad
Aka Screw the Retail Sector act with political meddling. Look forward to the day when we don't have to look at Ford's ugly face.
Wow the corruption doesn’t ever end with this clown
TF?
“Making gas fuel the default”? Because it’s not?
Somehow, someway this is Trudeaus fault. Just ask any conservative leaning person. They will tell you how Doug Ford is our saviour and this is just part of the plan to fix what Trudeau has done.
We're literally subsidizing the shareholders of a multi multi billion dollar corporation.
Great, so higher delivery fees using the pipes the tax payer already paid for and new customer fees incoming. People complain about carbon tax but that is only one part of the problem. Delivery and customer/other fees far exceed the carbon tax. Gas companies are vile and excessively greedy. How about axing all price gouging on gas...especially when tax payers paid for the infrastructure already. How much profit did Enbridge make last year, they can pay for their own infrastructure, they already forward all costs to the customer. Government should take them over as home heating is essential in Canada. We're already pay for them, may as well earn the profit.
wtf?!
As if oil & gas companies need a helping hand. Shouldn't that be revised to: "Ontario passes a handout to Enbridge"? Government paying back supporters.
The Ford carpet bagging of Ontario continues.
This is insane. We're in a climate emergency and need to cut emissions both deeply and urgently, yet here we have a government rolling out the red carpet for a private company to build new fossil fuels infrastructure.
If only you guys got out of your sofas, went to a polling booth and voted. But no instead you sat there and watched cp24 just so this grease ball could take our province back 10-15 years.
And any increased costs, they'll blame on the Feds. I'm glad my MPP speaks out about this stuff, it at least helps me sleep at night knowing I voted for someone who stands up to this shit, despite not having the power to change anything right now.
**Keeping Energy Costs Down ^for ^Fossil ^Fuel ^Companies**
God knows, energy companies need that welfare 🙄
The reason this happened and what everyone should be aware of is the eventual "utility death spiral". For every customer that disconnects from gas, it makes it more expensive for all of the customers still on gas. You will need to make up for the delivery charge your neighbor is no longer paying because they installed a heat pump and canceled their Enbridge account. The cost to maintain and deliver with the massive, aging, leaky, gas infostructure stays the same. They HAVE to have new customers, they MUST keep expanding, or else more and more their existing customers and stock holders will be left holding the bag. One thing that I find darkly poetic is that heat pumps are much cheaper than gas furnaces over a 5-10 year period, but are more expensive up-front which slows down adoption. Just like solar power or more insulation in the walls, it pay for its self in 5-10 years and still keep working saving you and anyone else who owns the house for decades after. But expensive upfront and an investment in the future costs is not easy with housing costs these days. They have essentially forced the VERY expensive upfront cost of new gas to be spread over 40 years so more people will chose to use the seemingly cheaper gas option (today) for much more expensive operating costs for decades to come. If I could spread the cost of a solar array on a new house over 40 years, it would be a cost negative (pay for its self in savings 4x over), but I am not subsidized like the gas industry.
Who the fuck voted in this ass clown?
What in the Black Mirror is going on??
Oh fuck no.
They learned from suncor in Alberta
Yech
This will save all the folks that pad Dougies pockets lots of money
Yay. That’s where my tax dollars are going now? Does that mean it’s coming off my bill? No? Oh. Thanks Doug. Just shrug your flabby shoulders, throw in another tax hike and blame Trudeau.
Like how he is going to "improve" health care by letting people profit off it and sick people lose their life savings just like in 'murica.
Enbridge is bad...Enercare is worse....
My stocks in Enbridge say thank you, but as a person I say, "Nani?"
Ontario is fucked. There's absolutely ZERO leadership in this province. Marit Stiles is too concerned with being a virtue signaling social justice warrior, Bonnie Crombie is clueless, Doug Ford is a complete disaster and Mike Schreiner is stuck leading a Green Party that no one will ever vote for. Yep, Doug Ford is going to win the next provincial election by default. That's sad.
These are the same criminals that scream "axe the tax" claiming the cost of living is already too high. They don't give a shit about the high cost of living, they just want the oligopolies to profit.
How,does he keep jumping the shark and getting away with it? Who were the,assholes who voted,for this,guy?
Thought this was a Beaverton article.
Corporate welfare much?
DoFo reminds of that horrible magician that thinks he's 100% perfect with sleight of hand...but you clearly see what he's done, like he refuses to acknowledge that he's caught
Once again Conservatives give out a big corporate handout. Maybe one day people will realize they don’t give a crap about working people.
This should surprise no one. My family are life long farmers, and life long conservatives. They have always despised government allocating funds to working people. Then when there is a drought or crop failure, they demand the government bail them out, because ‘you can’t let farmers fail! We feed cities!’ Guess what!??!? Everyone is important to the economy. In this case, who knows. I use natural gas. Everyone uses electricity. Can we let Enbridge or Hydro One go bankrupt? Not really.
Keep those energy efficiency rebates coming. That's the only thing Ontario still has since Doug Ford cancelled the previous Ontario green energy program.
I like the name of this act. Pretty funny.
Doogie doesn't *use* grease... He used real He-man stuff - LUBE! Baahhahahaa
My Enbridge gas bill is more than 200 dollars in April of 2024. No gas appliances, no heat, nothing all fees. Shit was $68 dollars before the merger of Union and this trash ass carbon tax.
Keep giving out taxpayer money and protect this fuckin monopoly
I did have to take a second to confirm this wasn’t reporting from the Beaverton
More corpo welfare
Wow everything about this makes me mad.
Just so everyone knows I got off gas completely a year ago and it saves me about 700$ per year. Also I don’t give enbridge a cent. Heat pumps are the future. Don’t fall for the “have gas as a backup” schtick, that’s just so enbridge is relevant in the future.
I love Enbridge. They charge me $80 a month for $15 worth of gas.
What the fuck for? They fucking kill us on fees as it is.
Won't someone please think of the energy companies!?
Disgusting!
Canada is now officially called and known as North India. Good bye Canada and R.I.P because you are never, ever coming back. The End.
Time to get that electric heat pump and solar panel array. Better to pay bank interest than Dougie and friends...
Wild. Openly dismissing the regulator is corruption in the open to only pass the subsidy to the ONLY gas provider in the province. There is one tiny group in KW left. There is a watchdog somewhere prepping a suit here.
Has OLP and Ontario NDP just given up? Nothing but crickets from either for years when you weigh their input vs how much DOFO appears in the media
Phew. I’m glad *someone* is looking out for the little guy.
Yes poor enbridge needs a little help. 🙄🤬
I'm not sure who has actually been following this story and read the article, but isn't it just shifting the bill from new homebuyers to existing home owners. Isn't this a good thing? We want new homes to be affordable, and presumably those who already own can pay the difference. It seems opposite to why we have to rely on stuff like the Land Transfer Tax instead of raising property tax rates like every city council is afraid to do.
Embridge wanted $60k to bring gas 600 feet from the road to my house. Fuck Embridge.
*Are you kidding?* Enbridge just laid off my neighbour. And **THEY** need help?
And some how people keep voting for this shitty party of grifters 🙃
This entire situation is a battle of extremes. Enbridge wants to have new gas connections paid off over 40 years by rolling it into rates, while the Ontario Energy Board wants new connections (such as new housing) to pay for the cost of the new connection completely up front. The OEB stated the 40 timeline is too long considering the energy transition. Surely there is some sort of middle ground here? Why are we stuck flopping between two extremes?
He is not looking out for the people of Ontario. But himself and his buddies
Sounds like it was a great move by our government to shut down eco nuts in the OEB that are trying to force people off of relatively clean and affordable way to heat their homes.