Family charged up by $2,000 hydro bill

Lise and Perry Bonin normally pay about $500 every three months for hydro at their Manitoulin Island cottage.

But in September, the Hanmer couple received a bill for $2,000 from Hydro One for three months’ worth of hydro.

They said they think the problem stems from a smart meter that was installed at the cottage in the summer of 2009.

Hydro One took an “actual” reading from the smart meter for the first time this past summer, and found the cottage was drawing 123 kilowatts per hour each day, Lise said. On previous bills, the average amount of electricity the family was using was about 20 kilowatts per hour each day.

“I had about 10 different conversations with different people (at Hydro One),” Lise said. “The final one was Oct. 22, when they did finally say they were going to get the integrity of our meter checked.”

Lise said a few Hydro One employees said she and her husband must have added an appliance that was using a lot of electricity. “We tried to tell them that there isn’t anything that has changed,” she said.

Although the couple is sure there’s been a problem with the smart meter, Hydro One still insists they have to pay their bill, Lise said. Although they’re being charged interest, Lise and Perry have decided to hold off on paying the bill, at least until their meter is fully checked out.

Daniele Gauvin, a spokesperson for Hydro One, said the company has already tested the Bonins’ meter, and found it was working.

However, Hydro One is “happy” to let Measurement Canada, a federal government agency responsible for ensuring the accuracy of measurement in the Canadian marketplace, also examine the meter, she said.

Before smart meters are installed, they are inspected by Measurement Canada, she said.

The smart meters installed in the Manitowaning, Ont. area, where the Bonins’ cottage is located, are still being read in a traditional way, Gauvin said.

Through a “telecommunications system,” smart meters are able to send out electricity consumption information.
However, this system hasn’t been installed in the Manitowaning area yet, Gauvin said.

When asked if customers still have to pay their bill if the meter attached to their home is found to be faulty, Gauvin said “We only require customers to pay for what they actually use.”

When customers get higher-than-expected bills, they are encouraged to phone Hydro One’s customer care line at 1-888-664-9376, she said.

After many phone calls to Hydro One, Lise said she decided to speak to Nickel Belt New Democrat MPP France Gélinas about the situation.

As well as looking into the situation herself, Gélinas let the leader of the provincial NDP, Andrea Horwath, know about the Bonins’ story. Horwath visted the family at their home Dec. 5 as part of a visit to Sudbury.

The NDP leader also spoke about the Bonins’ hydro bill in the legislature Dec. 6. In response to Horwath’s statement in the legislature, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said he thought it would be “very helpful” if Horwath were to produce the Bonins’ hydro bill “so we could take a good, long, hard look at it.”

“Again, I will remind Ontarians that this question comes from the leader of a party which has yet to put forward a plan when it comes to meeting the long-term energy needs of the people of Ontario,” McGuinty said, in the legislature.

“We put forward a long-term energy plan. It’s all about ensuring we have all the electricity we need—furthermore, clean electricity that creates jobs—so our families can enjoy good-quality lives and our businesses can expand and grow during the course of the next 20 years.”

Horwath told Northern Life that her party did not support the move to install smart meters in the province.

“Initially, the government claimed they were supposed to help people save energy, as well as help them save money.

We’ve invested $1.5 billion in these smart meters that are doing neither of these things.”

Horwath said the $1.5 billion spent by the provincial government on smart meters would have been put to better use with helping people to retrofit their homes to become more energy efficient.

She said her party has asked the province’s auditor general to do a “value for money” audit of the smart meter program.
Horwath also has some complaints about the HST being added to hydro bills. To make up for the extra tax, the government has decided to take 10 per cent off off people’s hydro bills starting next year. “The problem is this is a temporary solution,” she said.

“The government has said it will be for a maximum of five years. Also, in the legislation to implement the 10 per cent reduction, they gave themselves a huge loophole that allows them to either reduce the 10 per cent amount or cancel it altogether without going back to the legislature.”