TheBulletin.ca Journal of Downtown Toronto
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is disappointed with the Ontario government’s response to our ongoing campaign to show how high electricity bills are hurting hospitals.
Documents obtained by the CTF through Freedom of Information requests and released over the course of several months have revealed steep increases to the cost of electricity at Ontario hospitals, despite declining electricity usage.
For example, electricity bills at William Osler Health in Brampton are up $4.3 million, nearly 126%, over the past five years. North Bay Regional Health has seen an increase of 19% since 2012, even though consumption has fallen, and similarly, Brockville General saw a 48% increase over five years, even though their consumption also fell.
The government announced Nov. 27 that it would be spending $64 million this year to improve energy efficiency in hospitals.
“It’s obvious from today’s announcement that the Wynne government has been paying attention to our campaign, which has highlighted how their failed electricity policies have added a new burden of spiraling electricity bills to hospitals across Ontario. Unfortunately, today’s announcement misses the point,” said CTF Ontario Director, Christine Van Geyn.
“Hospitals across the province already have energy efficiency programs in place. We have seen that hospitals are reducing their energy consumption, but their bills are still going up. They’re in the same situation that families across the province are in. Encouraging hospitals to save electricity is important, but we already know it won’t solve the problem. We need structural change,” concluded Van Geyn.
The “Stop High Energy Bills” campaign is part a more than year-long campaign by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, and has included the release of documents showing electricity cost increases for hospitals. More information on those releases can be found HERE.
