A fledgling alternative weekly once published an interview with a man who suggested that customers might consider flipping their electricity meters as a legitimate method of lowering their electricity bills.
It's was not exactly a legal practice, but the Montreal Mirror article interviewee justified the practice by arguing that Hydro Quebec treated residential customers unfairly by offering lower rates to industrial clients.
Those customers, in his view, had the moral right to rig the system back to their advantage, according to this argument.
(One might counter-argue that the money saved will simply end up costing other consumers, on whose bills the loss is then saddled.)
I once witnessed somebody practicing the ingenious meter manipulation trick, which simply involved snipping an electrical tie and then turning the meter counterclockwise and then putting it back in place upside down.
The meter still ran. But it ran backwards. So the more electricity you used, the cheaper your bill would become.
(New technology makes that trick impossible, so don't bother strolling to your meter to see what's up.)
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But there might be an even larger appetite for keeping electricity bills down these days as people are seemingly having more difficulty than ever paying for their power in Quebec.
Having your electricity cut off is becoming increasingly commonplace, as the number of people who saw their power cut off has tripled in recent years.
Between 2005 and 2009 fewer than 20,000 customers were getting their electricity cut off each year in Quebec.
Hydro Quebec has a policy of not cutting electricity off during winter months - specifically from Dec. 1 to March 31 - so when the springtime comes, anybody driving through certain poor neighbourhoods might suddenly notice houses lit by candlelight.
Vaudreuil fireworks, if you will. Now who gets cut? If you can prove that you're very poor, Hydro will not cut off your power but if you fall just above that threshold you will get cut off.
"They fall into a spiral of debt and the unplugging often tosses the home into disarray to the point of dysfunction, making it impossible for them to find work," as Consumers' Union analyst Marc-Olivier Moisan-Plante told Coolopolis, who says that a staggering 600,000 Quebecers are touched by electricity payment problems.
Hydro Quebec charge 14.4 percent interest in debts owed. Plante's group wants that lowered to 6 percent to put it in line with the fees charged by Revenue Quebec.
The Quebec electricity monopoly claims that something like $100 million is lost annually on unpaid bills.
As a result they have started demanding large deposits from commercial clients.
Many small shopkeepers are simply unable to pay.
When the retail sector gets punished, the entire economy gets damaged, so the spiral of pain isn't limited to residential customers but to commercial users and consumers as well.
Hydro Quebec's policy of not cutting electricity during cold winter months is likely a contributing factor to the non-payment issue.
The system remains easy to manipulate for certain temporary residents.
Anybody who moves to Quebec for the winter months will quickly realize that there is nothing forcing him to pay the electricity bill.
If you're a student you can just toss that bill right in the garbage, as you'll be leaving town after spring finals, a practice that could save something like $1,000.
If Hydro Quebec were truly determined to reduce the money they lose through non-payment they might consider modifying their approach to cutting off power during winter months.
It's was not exactly a legal practice, but the Montreal Mirror article interviewee justified the practice by arguing that Hydro Quebec treated residential customers unfairly by offering lower rates to industrial clients.
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| Chimples and intern are seen at a recent Coolopolis candlelight editorial meeting |
(One might counter-argue that the money saved will simply end up costing other consumers, on whose bills the loss is then saddled.)
I once witnessed somebody practicing the ingenious meter manipulation trick, which simply involved snipping an electrical tie and then turning the meter counterclockwise and then putting it back in place upside down.
The meter still ran. But it ran backwards. So the more electricity you used, the cheaper your bill would become.
(New technology makes that trick impossible, so don't bother strolling to your meter to see what's up.)
Having your electricity cut off is becoming increasingly commonplace, as the number of people who saw their power cut off has tripled in recent years.
Between 2005 and 2009 fewer than 20,000 customers were getting their electricity cut off each year in Quebec.
That number has since risen 60,000 last year and the totals from 2015 are expected to be even higher.
No winter powerlessness
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| 62,000 Hydro customers were cut off in 2014, a total over four times higher than in 2008 |
Vaudreuil fireworks, if you will. Now who gets cut? If you can prove that you're very poor, Hydro will not cut off your power but if you fall just above that threshold you will get cut off.
"They fall into a spiral of debt and the unplugging often tosses the home into disarray to the point of dysfunction, making it impossible for them to find work," as Consumers' Union analyst Marc-Olivier Moisan-Plante told Coolopolis, who says that a staggering 600,000 Quebecers are touched by electricity payment problems.
Hydro Quebec charge 14.4 percent interest in debts owed. Plante's group wants that lowered to 6 percent to put it in line with the fees charged by Revenue Quebec.
Why some might not bother paying
The numerical explosion of powerless Quebecers coincides with steady increases in the price Hydro Quebec charges residential consumers.The Quebec electricity monopoly claims that something like $100 million is lost annually on unpaid bills.
As a result they have started demanding large deposits from commercial clients.
Many small shopkeepers are simply unable to pay.
When the retail sector gets punished, the entire economy gets damaged, so the spiral of pain isn't limited to residential customers but to commercial users and consumers as well.
Hydro Quebec's policy of not cutting electricity during cold winter months is likely a contributing factor to the non-payment issue.
The system remains easy to manipulate for certain temporary residents.
Anybody who moves to Quebec for the winter months will quickly realize that there is nothing forcing him to pay the electricity bill.
If you're a student you can just toss that bill right in the garbage, as you'll be leaving town after spring finals, a practice that could save something like $1,000.
If Hydro Quebec were truly determined to reduce the money they lose through non-payment they might consider modifying their approach to cutting off power during winter months.