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Floor Plan 2016 Home Builders Supplement
Featuring the latest trends and news in the home building industry in Ottawa. Everything from condos to townhomes to single-family detached homes.
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Ottawa EastNews News Manotick OttawaCommunityNews.com OttawaCommunityNews.com
March 17, 2016 l 32 pages
If Wal-Mart can price match, why can’t Hydro One? Petition created to harmonize rural hydro rates Kelly Kent
kkent@metroland.com
If you don’t try, you’ll never know. That’s why Coun. George Darouze of Osgoode ward spent months creating a
petition to the Ontario government, urging them to harmonize hydro rates for all Ottawa residents. “I don’t think it’s fair for rural residents to pay 30 per cent more than people on the other side of Mitch Owens (Road),” said Darouze of the difference between Hydro Ottawa rates paid by urban residents and Hydro One rates paid by those in the city’s rural areas. Darouze’s petition was prompted by the increasingly
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varied rates paid by residents who live in different areas of the same city. The problem, he said, is that when Ottawa amalgamated more than 15 years ago, 45,000 rural residents were not absorbed by the city’s utility company: Hydro Ottawa. Instead, they were left with their existing provider: Hydro One. For years, the discrepancy wasn’t an issue. However, in 2004 and 2005, Hydro One changed their billing structure and began to charge a delivery fee to rural residents. This caused rates in areas like Manotick, Greely and Osgoode to skyrocket, resting currently at about 30 per cent more than rates inside the urban core. “The residents are really tired of paying,” Darouze said. “We need to do something.” The first option put on the table was for Hydro Ottawa to purchase service rights for those 45,000 rural Ottawa residents from Hydro One. See RURAL page 2
ERIN MCCRACKEN/METROLAND
Trail blazers Alexa Burry, left, and her daughter, Allana, look forward to a hot breakfast at the Red Dot in Osgoode on March 5. The Osgoode residents planned to eat with other members of the Osgoode Carleton Snowmobile Trail Club and surrounding clubs ahead of the Ride for Her in Snowmobile Style. Organizers were hoping the event, which included two groups of enthusiasts riding from the Red Dot to the Rideau Carleton Raceway, would generate about $3,500 in support of the Ottawa chapter of Ovarian Cancer Canada. See full story on page 6.