....turn off power from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday...Jan 13

Sharon Chartrand not only has to make tough decisions between her energy bills and other expenses, but which rooms in her Whitefish home to heat.

"We have to heat one room at a time," Chartrand said. "I've got a curtain on my porch, so I don't have to heat my porch and I can keep my living room warm, things like that."

It's just one more way the cost of living has become too high under Kathleen Wynne's Liberal government, Chartrand said, and one more reason why Ontarians need to fight back against rising utility costs.

A key focus for Chartrand is the cost of hydro. A retiree who receives a $900 Canada Pension cheque per month, she told The Star her hydro bill for the same period regularly tops $400, leaving little for other expenses, and the HST rebate announced last year by Sudbury MPP Glenn Thibeault, the provincial energy minister, has made little difference.

"I feel that Premier Wynne is causing debt traps for Ontarians, and Mr. Glenn Thibeault, our MPP here in Sudbury, no one is helping us," Chartrand said. "They're sinking us and pushing us to look at other avenues for survival. We're not living anymore; we're in survival mode now.

"I can barely afford to live here in Ontario myself right now. People are soon going to be leaving their homes and families to go elsewhere to live, because prices of gas, food, hydro will and have already caused bankruptcy for a lot of people. They're using every means at their disposal to pay their bills, maxing out their credit cards, used all their life savings, and it's still not enough."

Chartrand joined a group called Hydro One - Enough is Enough, which boasts more than 30,000 members on Facebook, and she has organized protests in Greater Sudbury against the rising cost of hydro. She has also taken part at rallies and marches, such as one on Thibeault's office this past fall.

On Friday, Chartrand will join with Hydro One - Enough is Enough members for another protest which will see them turn off their power from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. in an attempt to get both the provincial utility and the government's attention.

"We're asking people to shut off their power and plan to go shopping in that hour, go skating, go to a movie, play outside with your grandkids, take a walk with your pet, go visit someone you haven't seen in a while," Chartrand said. "I know it's in the middle of January, but I know it will not affect our water pipes, it will not affect our foundations, et cetera, but it will get the attention of our Liberal government."

For more information about the protest, find Hydro One - Enough is Enough on Facebook.

"We're looking for someone to show some understanding and compassion and empathy," Chartrand said. "The good old Canadian way."

[email protected]

Twitter: @ben_leeson 

http://www.thesudburystar.com/2017/01/11/i-can-barely-afford-to-live-here-in-ontario

STT tends to leave the debate about global warming or ‘climate change’ to others.

However, STT has always thought that if man-made CO2 emissions really were destroying the planet, then sensible governments would have moved to build nuclear power plants from the moment the Chicken Littles started wailing about the heavens collapsing.

The French generate over 75% of their sparks using nukes – and have used nuclear power – without any serious incident – for over 50 years: the first plant kicked off in 1962.

Nuclear power is the only stand-alone thermal power source that is base-load and which does not emit CO2 emissions when generating power.

However, among those who fear the Planet is about to incinerate more than just a few of their number have reached the bleedingly obvious conclusion: THESE THINGS DON’T WORK – on any level.

Among a whole tranche of eco-warriors, the seemingly undying love affair with ‘wonderful’ wind is over.

Instead of pinning their hopes of (somehow?) cooling the planet with million strong fleets of bat-chomping, bird slicing, blade-chucking, pyrotechnic, sonic-torture devices, there are a growing number keen to tap into nuclear power, in order to cut CO2 emissions and, ergo, save the Planet.

READ MORE: 

The number of cases involving turbines collapsing, self immolating or throwing their blades to the four winds (aka “component liberation”) has become so common that, if we were a tad cynical, we would go so far to suggest the possibility of some kind of pattern, along the lines proffered by Mr Bond’s nemesis, Goldfinger: “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times it’s enemy action”.

This collection of stories from the US, UK, Germany and Canada suggests either enemy action or a product with a thoroughly hopeless design.

read more:  

One woman's plea for the Ontario government to give people a break on hydro rates has resonated with thousands of people.

Libby Keenan, who operates Sunhall Equestrian Center in Amherstburg, Ont., has seen her hydro rates skyrocket. Her latest bill was nearly $600, compared to the $140 she paid several years ago.

At the risk of interrupting the lovefest between Hydro One Executive vice-president Ferio Pugliese and Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault over reconnecting some 1,400 of its residential customers after they were disconnected for failure to pay their bills, can I ask the elephant in the room question: why on earth were they cut off in the cold of winter to begin with?

It was downright nauseating to hear Pugliese crow about Hydro One’s “program” being about “doing the right thing for customers experiencing hardship.” He added in typical Hydro One doublespeak that they were currently reviewing all “customer-facing policies and practices.”

My last report as Ontario’s Ombudsman, titled “In the Dark” in May 2015, detailed how Hydro One cunningly threatened customers with bogus disconnection extortion in winter if they didn’t pay up. But it was all a bluff — they were never going to follow through with it. I wrote then: “I am pleased that Hydro One has finally moved to take action to stop collection efforts through intimidation and deceit, and that it has finally come clean about its winter disconnection moratorium. However, its protracted and reticent response to this issue suggests that it still clings to the vestiges of a private sector mentality and lacks a public service vision.”

Now it seems that idle threats to cut the Hydro One cord are no more. They have gone one step further and cut off about 1,400 people from electricity in the middle of winter. How can Hydro One, serving 1.3 million customers, have turned into a nastier, meaner Grinch so fast after committing to discontinue their fake disconnection threat?

read more:  http://www.torontosun.com/2016/12/10/hydro-one-customers-left-in-the-cold?token=3185095133a5b522749af24fc5155537&utm_source=addThis&utm_medium=addthis_button_facebook&utm_campaign=Hydro+One+customers+left+in+the+cold+|+THE+OMBUDSMAN+|+Ontario+|+News+|+Toronto#.WEyza8IPIG4.facebook

Almost 213,000 Hydro One customers spent 10 per cent or more of their disposable household income on electricity bills in 2015, according to data obtained exclusively by Global News.

And for more than 37,000 Ontarians, nearly 30 per cent of their income went to paying for electricity.

That means more than one-fifth of the energy distributor’s 950,000 residential customers use between 25 and 400 per cent more of their available income than the anti-poverty advocacy group Low-Income Energy Network recommends.

“LIEN believes an affordable energy burden is six to eight per cent of your total household income for your heating and non-heating energy bills,” said research and policy analyst Mary Todorow.

“And we find that those folks who are at very low incomes, if they start paying 10 to 12 per cent of their total household income on their energy bills, they are going to be having to make difficult decisions.”

read more:  

“A Highland anti-windfarm campaigner who has had enough of “industry spin” hopes her new book about turbines will be allowed into schools to bring some balance to the debate.”

Lyndsey Ward was recently interviewed about her book that presents the other side of wind development impacts in order to counter industry’s pro- wind literature being allowed in schools.

Lyndsey writes:

“Tiny the Turbine is a story that really is for children. Following Subsidy Sam’s release it was clear that there was a need for something that would help children understand the negative impacts of large scale wind developments. Happily Josh agreed and we have worked together to produce this second story specifically for children. Subsidy Sam is a dark tale but Tiny the Turbine is a moral and uplifting story and shows that it is possible to succeed in fighting against the bad things in life no matter how daunting it may seem.”

For printed copies, any commercial resale or reuse please email Lyndsey Ward

Windfarm campaigner hopes new book will take-out the industry spin

Lyndsey Ward with a copy of her book Tiny the Turbine, cartoons are illustrated by Josh

Published December 12, 2016; The Press and Journal by Iain Ramage

READ ARTICLE:
https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands/1111038/campaigner-bids-for-book-balance/