I’ve lived a few days now with this time-of-use monkey-business. I didn’t like the sound of it when it was proposed and I like it even less now.
First of all, the options we have for actually using anything we need at any specified time – any of us – are limited. Can you wait until 9 p.m. for supper, or do you want to put a load of laundry in the dryer right before bed so it’s all wrinkly from sitting all night when you get a chance to take it out in the morning? Can you turn your refrigerator off during peak hours?
And for those who are home all day, the punishment is worse. Low rates are only between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. – “mid-peak” rates don’t count for much as they’re virtually the same as the high rates, very little difference – so you don’t even have the benefit of having a day at work to use your employer’s lights, heating/cooling, and tea/coffee/food preparation and not get billed for that at home.
And who are those people who are home all day? Pensioners, mothers on maternity leave, unemployed people and those who are too ill to go out. So what we have here is a system that not only has no saving grace, but one that is nearly impossible to change in your favour, even for a few dollars worth, and penalises the poorest folks among us.
The only people this initiative was designed to benefit are those who were already well-off enough to leave their air-conditioners or heating on all day while they were at work, as that’s about all that can be tweaked in the customer’s favour. And if they were that thoughtless without this program, this is not going to change them.
We need to get rid of the government that foisted this ill-advised program on us and try to find a few good politicians who actually think things through.
