Hydro Ottawa and I

This may seem like a strange post, but if you know me, Hydro Ottawa and I have not had the most trusting and agreeable relationship over the years that I have lived in Ontario.

Back in good ol' 2002 when my now wife and I packed up from Newfoundland and headed West to Ontario for work, we moved into a small one bedroom apartment. We got our utilities and perks installed (hydro, phone, cable, ect...). Then we moved into a house in 2006. Here are some of the issues/problems I have with Hydro Ottawa:

Problem

After receiving the first few hydro bills I was outraged about a single line item on the bill; "Debt Retirement Charge". So I called up Hydro Ottawa to get an explanation of this charge, since I did not owe any money past due, why was I being charged for this?

After listing to the representative on the phone explain to me that the Debt Retirement Charge is a charge (tax) on all residents of Ontario hydro bills to repay the debt that was incurred while hydro was managed (I use that term lightly) by the Ontario government. So why must I pay this debt? I did not live here when it was incurred. Nor was I the one who made the poor decisions to to put the organization into debt in the first place.

So back in 1998 the Ontario government decided to break from the power business and have semi-private organizations supply the power to residences and business of Ontario.

At the time, some of the $38.1 billion debt was offset by assets assigned to Ontario Hydro’s successor companies, Hydro One and Ontario Power Generation (OPG).

A portion of the debt was also covered through income the province receives from Hydro One and OPG profits, as well as what amounts to taxes on local hydro utilities.

But that still left $7.8 billion uncovered, so the province imposed a debt retirement charge of 0.7 cents a kilowatt hour on hydro bills until it is “defeased”, which means paid off."

This is where some basic math comes into play with my abacus.

1998 - 2013
Ontario Hydro Debt:  $7,800,000,000.00
Number of Households in Ontario:  4,887,510
Bi-monthly billing = ~ 90 billing cycles
Debt Retirement Charge per house, per bill: $17.00
Total for 15 years per household: $1550.00
Total for all households paid: $7,575,640,500.00

Remaining:  $224,359,500.00*

*No business were taken account for in these numbers, so the Ontario government should now be in the GREEN and we should no longer be paying this. But alas the numbers that the politicians throw out, is that the charge "should" be removed by 2015 - 2018.

Issue / Questionable Hydro Ottawa Knowledge

This only started once we moved into our house in 2006 and I really should not blame it on Hydro Ottawa, but they could have given me some advise or guidance since they are trying to get people to be "greener". Now I understand that a house consumes more power, due to its size. But when we moved we began to get power bills that ranged from $200 bi-monthly to $600 bi-monthly. That's a hefty increase from our normal $100 - $200 bi-monthly bill. I had contacted Hydro Ottawa on many occasions to try and help with my situation since all of my neighbors in similar houses were reporting bills around $150. The best they would say is that we were running too much stuff too long.

In our house we had a gas furnace and gas stove and the AC, dishwasher, dryer and other small items ran on hydro. So we began limiting the use of these items or only using them during the off peak hours when hydro is cheaper. This still did nothing (very little) for the power bills. I was convinced the wires were mixed and there was another house on our line so I hired a  electrician who in-turn charged me and confirmed I was wrong.

So at this point I was defeated and I felt like I should bend over and take it like a Hydro Ottawa customer and continue to pay up. This was up until the spring when my father visited and was wondering what fan was going at night because he could not sleep. After some quick investigation, it was the Venmar system in the house that was running 24*7. Now my first thought was a small fan in a Venmar system could not possibly be causing this increase, but I decided to turn it off and watch the daily power readings. To my surprise the daily hydro usage dropped by about 15 - 20 kWH a day. That's and average of 1050kWH over 60 days. But we needed some longer time stats before we make a conclusion.

Now I am ready to conclude that yes the Venmar system running was what was causing such high power bills over 7 years and below are a few numbers to validate my conclusion:


Date Period: 2012-06-20 - 2012-08-22
Period Usage: 3147.983333kWH
Per Day Usage: 49.97kWH

Date Period: 2013-06-18 - 2013-08-20
Period Usage: 1919.589789kWH
Per Day Usage: 30.47kWH

A whopping difference of 1228.393544kWH a month. A 39% savings.

It was further confirmation last week when all of my neighbors reported much higher hydro bills than we had for the same billing period. Now to get that number even lower. 

Hydro Ottawa's advise to customers is that by changing the small things in your house such as the time you turn the dishwasher on to turning off lights. In my opinion these things do not make a big difference to your overall bill. What I suggest is for you to look at the more non-obvious things in your house, as these things could be running 24*7 and eating up much more hydro than many small things running every few days during peak time.

Idle No More? Why are we falling victim.

I will preface this blog post with the caveat that this is mine and only my point of view. I am entitled to this point of view. You may agree or disagree with what I have to say and you are free to leave comments. Also be aware that there may be some images in this post that may be disturbing.

Should I be questioning this?

Am I wrong in asking what Idle No More is? I have read and heard more about Idle No More in the last two months than I have heard about most any other topic and that would not be a bad thing if Idle No More was a genuine cause with a clear common focus with clear goals. But and I say this with a capital B that the movement has not had any of this in the two months. Further more the media continues to give these people the attention that even a mother of a two year old screaming for candy in the store knows better than to do.... Give in and answer to there beckon call to shut them up.

Now I may seem harsh and possibly be called racist and other terms since I am speaking out mainly about one group of people here but I can honestly say I don't take myself as falling into that category because I am speaking about a movement and not a people but please read all of this before you make judgement on me.

Idle No More seemed to have popped up out of no where back in December, though it was in full swing much prior to this. You see in December was when one person decided to be the star in this slap stick comedy that we now know as Idle No More. This star was none other than the Chief of the Attawapiskat  reserve Theresa Spence. Since Parliament was now convening for Christmas and there was going to be not much political news on the hill for a month Chief Spence decided to set up on an island a short canoe ride from Parliament Hill, perfect since the itchy typing fingers of the reporters would be near by. Chief Spence couldn't just sit there and wait for reporters because that's not news, she decided she was going on a hunger strike.

Now if you have ever heard of a hunger strike you will certainly know it can and is a dangerous thing you are essentially saying that you will die for this cause. Again problem one, what is the cause Idle No More is fighting for? We don't know, no one knows that has not be announced or relayed. Chief Spence is continuing to call her so called protest a hunger strike and the media continues to portray this term. I find this to be a slap in the face to all other people around the world who have taken on a hunger strike. A hunger strike is when you are on a water (H2O) only diet, with water only you will begin to wither away to nothing in about a week and death usually ensues within a few weeks. Chief Spence is not on a hunger strike she is on a liquid only diet, which I can assure you many other people are on now especially after Christmas and trying to loose a few lb's. With a liquid diet you are still receiving all of the essential nutrients that the body needs to survive and live. I may be 60 by the time Chief Spence would die for her cause on a liquid diet and it would not be from the diet but because of old age for her at that point. Below are few images some of Chief Spence over 4 weeks on her so called hunger strike and the other is of a young man after 7 days on a Tibetan hunger strike. As you can see these hunger strikes are not the same.

Week 2

Week 3

7 Days

Week 4

Now as you can see that is not much of a hunger strike that Chief Spence is on. But it is getting the attention of the media and some politicians. Chief Spence has demanded that she will not stop her hunger strike until she has a face to face with the Prime Minister and the Governor General. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has gone much further than I would have given this temper tantrum two year old, he has agreed to meet with the Chiefs of the First Nations including Chief Spence. This seemed to appease Chief Spence for a few days and she agreed to attend but not stop her "Hunger Strike" until after the meeting. Wow great we gave into the child, maybe we can continue our days without her name in the news for a day..... Wrong. She has since said she will not attend since the Governor General would not be there. 

More Chiefs acting as two year old's

Up to this point I was getting ticked off to turn on one of the daily three to four newscasts that I watch, CBC, CTV, SUN national news and CTV and CBC for the local news and time-shifting for the CBC Newfoundland news. As you can tell I am a news junkie so seeing day in day out Chief Spence acting like a two year old for not getting her own way to getting a meeting with the Prime Minister and Governor General for a cause the is non existent is really annoying. Finally and not to my approval the PM agreed to meet with the First Nations Chiefs, they seemed happy and all was well. Not so fast, the Manitoba First Nations Chiefs have decided to back Chief Spence and not attend the meetings unless the Governor General attends. So we now have a class of two year old crying for attention for that sweet candy treat. What does this show to anybody? Adults and children? The more you have a temper tantrum and the louder you scream the quicker you will get results.

The Governor General had no plans on attending these meetings, he has now just recently agreed to meet with the chiefs Friday night for a meeting and essentially giving into their demands.  Again setting a precedent on how to resolve issues in our society no matter how silly the demands.

Time for the people to speak out

Please take this with a grain of salt but this is a saying that I have heard many of times in many different situations, Too many Chiefs and not enough Indians. Now I know you are reading this and saying holy shit did he just write that, yes I certainly did and I do not mean it in a bad way. Right now many of the reserves are very closely knit with the same group (family) running the band council. This council much like any town council within this country is elected and different levels of government sends money which the council spends on the appropriate things. But here lays a major difference: The band council does not need to produce any financials or prove for an audit where and how the money is spent. This is a major problem, as where any normal city council across the country would be up on charges, locked up and booted off of council, within the bands the money is spent with no questions asked. And I am not speaking of small amounts of money here people. I am speaking of millions and millions to reserves that are as small as 300 people. Some of the chiefs are making 200 - 300 thousand dollars tax free for running a town of 300. Most small towns across the country get little to no money for being on the council or mayor, they do it for the love of their community.

Now where was I going with this heading? Ah yes, the people of these communities and I do not mean the band council, must and have to stand up to your council first and not the country. Your band council needs to answer for you how your money, the people's money, is getting spent with most of your residential peers suffering to survive. Because this country and all the people of this country cannot continue to send money to a black hole with no accounting has to where and how the money is spent, as that will not solve any issues even the non existent ones that the Idle No More cause is fighting for. All I ask is to please speak up to your leaders (Band Council) first, ask questions to where all of the money is going and has gone.

More to say, just no time

I do have much more to say but I don't have that much time to write more. Maybe I'll do a part two to this to outline some other items of concern but for now this will be all, you may like it or you may hate it, but like I said in the beginning, this is mine and only my point of view, feel free to express yours below.

My Christmas Rant

So this will kind of be my re-released version of the Rick Mercer Rant, about Christmas. Every year rolls around to the Christmas time and I'm always feeling discussed about the same few things each year. Now don't get me wrong, I love Christmas and I'm sure I will always, maybe its the way I was raised, the time period I was raised in, the location or some other outside factor. But there are three main things each and every year lately (last 5 to 10 years) that annoys me, read them below and let me know if you feel the same way:

1. Politically correctness during Christmas: Its Christmas people, not the festive season, the holidays or anything else. This time of year was made a holiday for a reason...... that reason is its Jesus's Birthday, its Christmas. Don't be giving me a "Happy Holidays" Mr. Wal-Mart greeter, say Merry Christmas. I don't want to see a winter scene on my Tim Horton's mug, I want to see a jolly ol' Saint Nick kissing mommy under a Christmas Tree. More and more we are giving in to all things to make them politically correct, but guess what Christmas should not be one of those times. So I think I am only going to shop at stores that support Christmas for what it is. Unfortunately for my wife the only store I have seen so far this Christmas that says Merry Christmas in their ad's and in store is Canadian Tire.
   
2. Kids want it all: Now this just may be me, but Christmas is a time for spending time with family, friends and loved ones. Yes, a gift is nice to receive and I love giving them more than I love receiving them. I donate to the food bank each year and also give toys to needy families so they have something. I hear some kids asking for more and more each year, costing hundreds and even thousands of dollars, and I shake my head, than shake it more when their parents give in. Teach your kids about how many more unfortunate people are out there with nothing, teach them the meaning of Christmas, spend time with family and friends and the people you love. These are this things that matter the most in life, not the material things. To this day I do not know of one Christmas where I have wanted something and was mad that I did not get it or ask for so many things that would make Mackey Cram poor (I think that was his name. Some rich old fart I heard dad talk about many times), and I'm sure my parents would agree with me on this one and so would my wife since my answer each year to that question of "What do you want for Christmas?" my answer is simply nothing. I have all I need.
   
3. Christmas ad's running earlier and earlier: Each and every year the TV ad's, Sears Wish book, and decorations in the stores come out earlier. It seems every year you now see decorations popping up before Halloween is even over. Why can't retailers wait until at least mid-November before bomb-barding us with everything. By the time Christmas day actually arrives your sick of it all. We received our Sears Wish Book this year in August, yes, August, five months before Christmas and just seven month after the last. When I was I kid that thing would not arrive till the end of November unless my parents were hiding it away from me.

Please feel free to add comments below or add to the list of stores that will still say Merry Christmas during this time of year and think about all of this and do some reflection, or soon Christmas will be forgotten for what its meant to be. I know, I for one, will not forget and I will have a happy and joyful Christmas as always. So Merry Christmas to all!