A Ponzi scheme is where the schemer gets one group of victims to pay another group of victims. Ponzi schemes require an ever-increasing flow of more money to survive. All Ponzi schemes eventually collapse.
High hydro rates were a big problem politically. So, In the 2018 Ontario provincial election Doug Ford promised to lower hydro rates by 12 per cent. Ford has not lowered hydro rates by even one per cent.
What Ford did do was hide and protect private profits with his electricity rebate program subsidy. The Financial Accountability Office has reported the cost to the public treasury from between $6 billion and $7 billion per year.
Last November first the Ontario Energy Board raised electricity rates by 29 per cent. This was done, as it has been done every November 1 and April 1 since June 2002 to pay the rates the deregulated electricity market charged.
Knowing this would not be good optics for him, Ford increased the electricity rebate program from 13 to 23.5 per cent, hiding the increase. Ford never talks about his 2018 promise anymore.
Just doing the math, $6.9 Billion plus 23.5 per cent equals a whopping $8.5215 billion and growing, that figure does not include the November 1 increase of 29 per cent. All paid for by the public treasury. Hard to believe that, on top of all that Ford wants to increase hydro rates by 72.6 per cent to prepay the billions for new nuclear plants that won’t be built for years.
Some history is required.
Like the con man who goes from town to town working their scam, in the 1990’s Enron was wandering the world selling their invention: The deregulated electricity market.
Claiming Ontario hydro was bankrupt because of a $34 billion debt, Harris deregulated our hydro. A debt that was almost entirely nuclear debt showing right up to today how expensive nuclear power is.
Harris then spent millions on a province wide ad campaign promising “lower rates” from his hydro deregulation legislation, as well as promising that “nothing will go wrong”.
Harris rammed through three pieces of legislation in 1998. Bill 35 The Energy Competition Act, The Electricity Act and the Ontario Energy Board Act. Harris then had Enron and a who’s who of private investors design Ontario’s electricity market, which is still the main cause of today’s high hydro rates. Harris’s legislation changed all non-profit at -cost hydro commissions into for-profit corporations. Harris’ promises of “lower rates and nothing will go wrong” was short lived.
After the Enron designed electricity market opened in June of 2002, by 2007 rates doubled, by 2010 rates had tripled and by 2018 rates had quadrupled.
This brings us to Ford’s election and the introduction of Ford’s Ontario electricity rebate hiding the problem. Conservative Alberta is doing the exact same scheme with their electricity rates. Electricity markets are notoriously easy to manipulate, as shown by failures in California and many places around the world.
The victims now paying more and more to fund this Ponzi scheme are all of us.
The crisis in both healthcare and education as well as other public services we all depend on is due to the underfunding and cuts to our critical public services to fund this scam and worst of all, Ford is also borrowing from future taxpayers by using deficit financing to pay for his scheme.
In a nutshell Ford is financing his scheme with social deficits in healthcare, education and public treasury deficits.
The deficit for 2026-27 is now $13.8 billion, indebting future generations.
In the middle of an affordability crisis, Ford’s scheme only protects private profits.
This Ponzi scheme like all others is unsustainable and will eventually collapse.
The Enron designed electricity market must be closed. Rates must be regulated and like nine countries in Europe and Australia we must get on the pathway of public green power and conservation.
The climate crisis and affordability demand it.
