Money

So now that spring is here and the sun is warm and I can stop and smell the apple blossoms, my thoughts, naturally, turn to money. Specifically, I can't help but think how the government, both provincial and federal, tell us that our inflation rate is somewhere around two percent but the experience of people I know pegs it much higher. Gasoline and food prices have skyrocketed. So has the price of running your home. Notice your electricity bill lately?

My mother, who is 95 years old, still lives on her own, in her own house, in Ontario. She is on a fixed income - CPP and OAS - and that doesn't add up to a whole bunch. For the past three years she has received no increase in these payments - but let me tell you how her expenses have gone up. Ontario too has a new HST that has added considerably to her costs.

At any rate - that's the reality. Oh - did I mention that the big oil companies are getting billions in government subsidies? However, no raise in OAS?

But that's not my point - although it could be. My point is BC Hydro. Huh? yep - keep reading. As you know, the rates are going up and up and up - over 30 percent in the next few years. We are told this is solely due to the need for new infrastructure. Apparently we have very old wires swinging from post to post. And I believe that is absolutely true (or mostly true - I don't for one minute suspect that more profits might be in this mix).

So here's what I want to know. When all this infrastructure was put in place - by intelligent people I would assume, did anyone at the time calculate the life of the system and when it would need to be replaced and how to do that and how to set aside money for that? No? They thought it would last forever? Or maybe ten years or twenty years later, did anyone think, "You know, we should have a slush fund and contribute to it annually and our rates should incorporate enough so we can set money aside."

No one thought about that? Is BC Hydro saying that a manager or two woke up one day and said, "Whoa! This stuff is falling apart! Who would have thought it would ever do that? What are we going to do?"

And they had an emergency meeting and after thinking about the problem for - oh, say - two seconds, someone said, "Well, let's just raise the rates a whole lot and then we can build new infrastructure!" "Great idea!"

I wonder - once all the new poles and wires and other gizmos are in place and we've paid for them, if our rates will go back down. Or - no - maybe the rates will stay the same and the "extra" money will be put aside for future infrastructure replacements. Ya think?