For those that likes pre-paid utilities. Dundurn Property Management likes to offer it for their student rooms.

get used to it and drop the attitude of entitlement. Ontario has more expensive electricity than any other region of North America. it ain't cheap. thank mr. mcguinty for that. its never going to get any cheaper either. having lived on my own since I was 19 and having lived in many different places I will tell you that outside of the mcmaster student bubble you wont find ANY rental that includes hydro or cable.

students, especially mac students with awesome perks like the bus pass, are spoiled compared to regular renters. you have *no idea.* When I went to Mohawk, this was a common reason for resentment towards mac students (a bus pass used to cost me about a thousand dollars a year, no student discounts and very few mohawk houses include all the perks.)

it amazes me and sickens me why landlords and the city in general are willing to cater so to university students and not to low income people in general.

Originally Posted by collymolotov

get used to it and drop the attitude of entitlement. Ontario has more expensive electricity than any other region of North America. it ain't cheap. thank mr. mcguinty for that. its never going to get any cheaper either. having lived on my own since I was 19 and having lived in many different places I will tell you that outside of the mcmaster student bubble you wont find ANY rental that includes hydro or cable.

students, especially mac students with awesome perks like the bus pass, are spoiled compared to regular renters. you have *no idea.* When I went to Mohawk, this was a common reason for resentment towards mac students (a bus pass used to cost me about a thousand dollars a year, no student discounts and very few mohawk houses include all the perks.)

it amazes me and sickens me why landlords and the city in general are willing to cater so to university students and not to low income people in general.

Originally Posted by collymolotov

get used to it and drop the attitude of entitlement. Ontario has more expensive electricity than any other region of North America. it ain't cheap. thank mr. mcguinty for that. its never going to get any cheaper either.

Hydro rates go MUCH further beyond Mr. McGuinty. The further back in history you go, the more people you'll find to blame. Though the media wouldn't like to tell you that. What's pissing me off lately is their treatment of the Smart Meter project and how people are directly correlating it to rising rates. Sure, they're a contributing factor, but in this case they're being used as a scapegoat. There is much more to the story here.

Ontario's grid is terribly antiquated right now, and will need major attention in the coming years. You can't say this is because of poor management - take a look at the magnitude of work that has to be done just to keep the lights on and there's no way it'll come cheaply.
(edit: check these:
http://www.hydroone.com/Projects/Bru...s/default.aspx
http://www.telvent.com/en/business_a...ion-System.cfm )

Yes, we may have expensive power costs, but we are also more advanced than many other jurisdictions. With Ontario's size, we also have a MAJOR problem of having adequate transmission and distribution lines to service everybody in the province. Big distance = Huge $$$.

We do not have the highest rates in North America... Check the numbers:
http://www.hydroquebec.com/publicati...mp_2010_en.pdf

We do however have a problem with population density when compared to our friends south of the border. This drives up transmission charges exponentially. We also have debt retirement charges, etc that are legacy charges from the deregulation that further inflate prices in Ontario. Finally we do not have access to all the awesome hydro generation that Quebec does (although we are certainly not the bottom of the pile on that one either). Hydro rates are relatively cheap in Ontario when looking globally, however the fact that things come on at the flick of a switch leads many customers to think of hydro as a right and not a privilege. Throw in rediculous microFIT rates and coming off of a rate cap and get ready for the real show. Rates will be going up HUGE time in the next couple years as distribution companies submit their new rate bases, cap free. Unfortunately electricity costs more than what we have been paying for it, when all the nuances of fluctuating demand and generation schedules in a deregulated economy are taken into consideration and we will see those rates reflected more accurately in the coming years.

Originally Posted by 19841984

Finally we do not have access to all the awesome hydro generation that Quebec does (although we are certainly not the bottom of the pile on that one either).

Sooooooooo jealous of Hydro Quebec for that.

oh, and MicroFIT...