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John Pickernell

Assistant Board Secretary

Ontario Energy Board

416-440-7605

Fax: 416-440-7656

Website: www.oeb.gov.on.ca

Official Correspondence: BoardSec@oeb.gov.on.ca



Address:

P.O. Box 2319

2300 Yonge Street 27th Floor

Toronto, ON

M4P 1E4

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From: Harder, Linda (MNR) [mailto:Linda.Harder@ontario.ca]
Sent: September 8, 2009 10:42 AM
To: BoardSec
Cc: regulatory@hydroone.com
Subject: File EB-2009-0096
Importance: High



Sir/Madame



Enough is enough. Hydro One, in April 2009 had a delivery charge increase, now they are asking for another for 2010 and 2011. A Hydro rate increase also occurred in November 2008, and I am sure they have it in the plans to increase that rate also in 2010 for that as well. Ontario residents have been working hard to conserve energy usage, as seen by the number of communities in our area of North western Ontario which have banded together as a community to conserve energy, not just hydro alone. By allowing these continuous increases in delivery rates (which are currently working out to be higher in $ value than my actual hydro usage for kwh) is putting further financial hardship on those persons already affected by job loss or reduction in hours/pay/job sharing. I have not seen Hydro One make any effort to conserve/downsize or whatever like most other companies. They just keep raising their rates. Maybe if they downsized their staffing then their costs would be significantly reduced. The residents of Ontario should not be a bottomless cash cow to support their profit line.



My family vigorously opposes these proposed increases regarding the above file EB-2009-0096. We hope that your board will take into consideration how often that Hydro One makes and has made application for increases to their rates (both hydro and delivery) over the past several years. Also noting that we are still paying the debt retirement costs for their excesses of the past. Hydro One must be made to be a fiscally responsible organization just like everyone else is being asked to do.



The percentage increases may not seem high taken separately but if you started adding all the increases together over the past several years you will notice that it has added up considerably, but for those with fixed incomes along with most residential clients of Hydro One, the winter months from November thru April are usually exceeding 1000 kwh/month in usage (if you heat with Hydro). This is even more evident in the northern first nation communities where their homes are not usually energy efficient to start with and their income is usually limited to welfare. Many Hydro One users also do not have the option in rural communities of alternate heating sources.



Thank you for considering our opinion.



Linda and Richard Harder

Box 30, Site 108, RR1

Dryden, Ontario

P8N 2Y4



lharder@drytel.net



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