New Changes to the rebate under the Ontario Rebate for Electricity Consumers Act, 2016
Effective November 1, 2019, the Province of Ontario replaced the 8% Provincial Rebate with a new 31.8% Ontario Electricity Rebate. The rebate, formerly known as the 8% Provincial Rebate, is being renamed the “Ontario Electricity Rebate” (OER). As is the case now, the credit will be calculated on the basis of the pre-tax “base invoice amount”.
The eligibility requirements for the rebate are also changing. Consumers with demand of 50 kilowatts or less or annual consumption of 250,000 kilowatt hours or less, farms, and licensed long-term care homes (other than where the electricity account is also in respect of a hospital) remain eligible.
Under the new rules, “multi-unit complexes”(a) they contain at least two “qualifying units”; with demand above 50 kilowatts and annual consumption above 250,000 kilowatt hours will qualify for the rebate if (b) at least 50% of the units within the complex are qualifying units; and (c) the complex provides its distributor with the required notice.
Certain types of multi-unit complexes are specifically excluded from eligibility, such as hospitals, universities, trailer parks and hotels.
As a transitional measure, customers that were receiving the rebate on October 22, 2019 but do not satisfy the revised eligibility requirements will continue to receive the (increased) rebate until October 31, 2020, as long as they provide the required notice to their distributor by January 31, 2020. If they do not provide the notice, they will stop getting the rebate on January 31, 2020.
Multi-unit complexes that were receiving the rebate immediately before November 1, 2019 and meet the revised eligibility requirements will also need to provide the required notice by January 31, 2020 in order to ensure the uninterrupted application of the rebate.