Press Release
Local MPP Sarah Campbell is calling on the minister of energy to ban the sale of energy contracts on the doorstep.
Speaking in Queen’s Park on Tuesday, Campbell said companies employ misleading tactics to sign unsuspecting consumers to long-term, high-priced contracts.
“These salespeople will use any trick in the book to make a sale, including guaranteed savings, promising ‘greener’ energy, or even pretending to be from the utility—anything to get the customer to sign on the dotted line,” she charged.
“The companies say these are rogue agents, yet I’ve dealt with hundreds of cases, in dozens of communities, hundreds of kilometres apart, and the stories are the same across the board,” she noted.
Campbell cited a 2009 exposé by the CBC television show, “Marketplace,” showed that zero people had saved money on their hydro bills as a result of the contracts.
More recently, the province’s Auditor General pointed out hydro customers are paying 35-65 percent more on contracts than they would with the local utility.
The Auditor General also highlighted the fact that despite making up only 15 percent of the market, complaints with retailers make up 90 percent of complaints to the Ontario Energy Board.
Campbell suggested the best way to ensure consumers are protected is to ban the door-to-door sale of contracts while allowing companies to use traditional means that can be monitored—such as advertising—to market their goods.
Campbell later followed up her statement with a letter to the minister outlining her reasons for calling for immediate action.
Her full member’s statement can be viewed online at http://www.youtube.com/krrndp
