Hydro-Quebec forced to lower rates, a smidge
Hydro-Quebec has to lower its rates by 0.5% as of April 1, but the real poisson d’avril is that as of 2014 they get to increase rates 3.7% annually for four years (reminiscent of the tuition increase schedule).
Ian 23:38 on 2012/03/08 Permalink
Oh, but the best means of maintaining a world-class structure is to increase user payments! Didn’t you hear?
Kate 23:43 on 2012/03/08 Permalink
I know!! And as the Gazette says, people won’t value their education unless they pay a lot more for it.
jeather 09:35 on 2012/03/09 Permalink
No doubt this will make people keen on doing things like switching to a less polluting electric car.
Bill Binns 10:02 on 2012/03/09 Permalink
My electric bill here is 80% lower than the last place I lived in Florida for about the same size apartment. I’m a big fan of Hydro Quebec.
Kevin 10:34 on 2012/03/09 Permalink
@Kate
There’s a strong argument to be made that Quebecers *don’t* value higher education.
This province has one of the lowest number of people graduating high school, let alone trying to get a post-secondary degree.
You can also look at donations made to Universities. McGill, Concordia and Bishop’s get roughly as much money from alumni as the 14 French schools combined.
William 10:44 on 2012/03/09 Permalink
I would rather that Hydro keep the rates as they are and rather put the money into their various social development programmes (i.e., that the state enterprise use its profits to benefit those who need it rather than make across-the-board effective payouts to those who don’t need them), but voilà…
Darrell 22:30 on 2012/06/04 Permalink
I don’t think Hydro is lamenting this decrease as they boasted record profits in 2011, no doubt due to the widespread pilfering of their customers bank accounts through bill padding, illegal requests for security deposits, and reconnection fees. This is the corporate fatcats’s finest hour undoubtedly…