Bill 186

Bill 1862000

An Act to amend the

Ontario Energy Board Act, 1998

to provide for protection

against increases in the rates

charged for the distribution of electricity

Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, enacts as follows:

1. Section 78 of the Ontario Energy Board Act, 1998, as amended by the Statutes of Ontario, 2000, chapter 26, Schedule D, section 2, is further amended by adding the following subsections:

Restriction on rates

(7.1) Despite anything in this section, the Board shall not make an order approving or fixing rates that a distributor may charge for distributing electricity to a consumer at any time after subsection 26 (1) of the Electricity Act, 1998 comes into force and during any part of a year immediately after an IMO-dominated year unless the rates that the Board approves or fixes do not exceed the actual rates that the distributor charged for distributing electricity to the consumer during the IMO-dominated year, plus a percentage annual increase equal to the percentage annual increase in the Consumer Price Index for Canada for prices of all items, as published by Statistics Canada.

Definition

(7.2) In subsection (7.1), "

IMO-dominated year" means a year in which the Independent Electricity Market Operator distributed at least 35 per cent of the total number of kilowatt hours of electricity distributed in Ontario.

Previous orders

(7.3) If the Board has made an order approving or fixing rates that a distributor may charge for the distribution of electricity and the order does not comply with subsection (7.1), the order shall be deemed to be modified to comply with that subsection.

Notice to distributor

(7.4) Where an order of the Board is deemed to be modified under subsection (7.3), the Board shall issue a notice to every affected distributor setting out the modified rates that the distributor may charge for the distribution of electricity during the period affected by the modification.

Credit to consumers

(7.5) Upon receiving a notice described in subsection (7.4), the distributor shall send a copy of it to each of its consumers affected by the modification and shall credit each of those consumers with the amounts, if any, that the consumer has paid to the distributor in excess of the modified rates.

Commencement

2. This Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.

Short title

3. The short title of this Act is the Ontario Energy Board Amendment Act (Electricity Rates), 2000.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

The Bill amends the Ontario Energy Board Act, 1998 to limit increases that the Ontario Energy Board can approve or fix in the rates that distributors charge for distributing electricity to consumers after subsection 26 (1) of the Electricity Act, 1998 comes into force and in any year immediately after a year in which the Independent Electricity Market Operator distributed at least 35 per cent of the total number of kilowatt hours of electricity distributed in Ontario. The increases are limited to the percentage annual increase in the Consumer Price Index for Canada for prices of all items, as published by Statistics Canada.