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The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) recently announced that electricity prices under the regulated price plan changed as of Nov. 1, raising concerns for homeowners about affordability.
In an Oct. 16 news release, the OEB said the Ontario Electricity Rebate (OER) will decrease from 23.5 per cent to 15.7 per cent, meaning households will receive a smaller discount on their electricity bills.
In the news release, the rebate was described as being reduced because electricity prices under the Regulated price plan (RPP) are also going down. According to the OEB’s webpage, the RPP was designed to provide its consumers with stable and predictable electricity since 2005.
The RPP determines how much eligible households, small businesses and farms pay for the electricity they use and the price that appears on their electricity bills.
For example a typical household using 700 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity per month will save about $23 on its monthly bill through the OER (this is also according to the OEB press release).
Mark Winfield, professor of environmental and urban change at York University and co-chair of the faculty’s Sustainable Energy Initiative, said the reduction in the OER could lead to higher electricity bills for households. He added that the move partially reverses the increased rebate introduced last year, by reducing some of the financial relief households had been receiving.
Winfield said the decision to reduce the rebate may reflect broader concerns about the province’s ability to sustain its electricity subsidies.
“The increase last year, by rough estimates, could have been as much as $2 billion, and with the province spending somewhere between seven and eight billion a year on electricity subsidies. There’s a point at which that just ceases to be fiscally sustainable,” Winfield said.
He added that electricity subsidies account for more than half of the provincial deficit and exceed the province’s annual capital spending on education and health care combined.
According to the OEB’s 2024 State of the Market Report, government spending on electricity cost-mitigation programs increased by approximately one billion, from 5.8 billion in 2023 to 6.8 billion in 2024.
Winfield said the impact of the rebate on low-income households remains unclear, particularly for those who already receive energy assistance.
“Those programs were designed on the basis of one set of assumptions about what was happening in the sector and with energy costs, and then if those factors change, one might have to look at redesigning the programs in response,” he said.
The Ministry of Energy and Mines declined the request for an interview or comment. The Independent Electricity System Operator, which handles communication for Save on Energy said it was not best suited to answer the questions about the reasons for the rebate reduction and its potential impact on Ontario households, particularly low-income residents.
To make electricity more affordable, Winfield said the province should better target financial assistance toward lower-income households, ensuring rebates reach those who need them most.
He also argued that Ontario should reconsider its long-term energy strategy, with greater investment in renewable energy, energy efficiency and storage to help reduce electricity costs.
Ontario residents will see new rates and changes to peak and off-peak hours following the Nov. 1 updates. For more information on how rates are calculated, visit https://www.oeb.ca/
Meriem is a third-year journalism student and a reporter On The Record, Fall 2026.