While Premier Kathleen Wynne congratulates herself for a hydro plan no one’s seen, Ontario businesses like Swan’s Variety in Athens are still paying the price for her failed leadership, says Leeds-Grenville MPP Steve Clark.
In Question Period last week, Steve asked the premier why she waited so long to act on the hydro crisis that contributed to the closure of Swan’s Variety last week. Owner Karen Swan cited soaring hydro bills – including the most recent $7,000 charge – as a major reason the 47-year-old family store was forced to close.
“The premier diminishes the hydro crisis and energy poverty she created by calling it a ‘mistake.’ Speaker, what does the premier have to say to Karen Swan, who just paid for this ‘mistake’ with her family business?” he asked. He said the premier has for years ignored warnings from him and other PC MPPs that unaffordable hydro rates were destroying our communities.
“Now, when her political future is at stake, she suddenly claims to care,” said Steve, adding, “They shamelessly spend taxpayer dollars on ads designed to portray themselves as heroes in a disaster they created.”
With families and businesses continuing to struggle, Steve called it unacceptable for the government to do a victory lap over a plan that does nothing to address the root causes responsible for soaring hydro rates.
“There’s no commitment to tear up the Green Energy Act or dismantle the bloated energy bureaucracy. It just puts the cost on the backs of our children and grandchildren in a desperate attempt to save the premier’s political future,” he said.
And the MPP stressed no one trusts the Wynne government that created the problem to actually fix it. “Ontarians will never forget this premier did nothing as hydro rates soared, businesses closed and families were forced from their homes.”
In the end, said Steve, the hydro crisis created by this government wasn’t Premier Wynne’s mistake, but the result of her failed leadership.
