by Karina Hunter

With meters that seem to run faster everyday, its' no wonder consumers are drawn to door-to-door solicitors promises of big savings!

December 7^th Algoma-Manitoulin MPP Mike Brown introduced a Private Members Bill which strives to protect Ontario consumers from dishonest electricity sales people.  The bill bans the retail sale of electricity contracts by means of door-to-door solicitation which is one of the top ten complaints received by the province from consumers.  “The practice of selling electricity contracts door-to-door is open to abuse by unscrupulous sales people and it is time to put an end to this [door-to-door] sales strategy” said Brown.

For most consumers, electricity futures are complex and confusing and other methods of sale will assure that buyers have reasonable opportunity to weigh a product’s potential merits or flaws.  Contracts sold when electricity retailer’s send commissioned sales people canvassing neighbourhoods often result in the use of phony sales figures while some have even been known to use scare tactics with more vulnerable customers resulting in thousands of dollars of additional cost over the terms agreed to by unwary consumers. Amending the Ontario Energy Board Act of 1998 Brown’s bill unified the provincial representatives receiving undisputed approval “I am pleased that the Legislature gave my Bill First Reading unanimously, 51-0” added Brown. 

Submitted to The Echo & the Chronicle Journal 12.07.09  

To learn more about how a bill becomes law in Ontario visit  the Queen’s University Library at  http://library.queensu.ca/webdoc/guides/bills_ontario.html

Try these handy flowchart style diagrams of the legislative process for each type of Bill from the Legislative Assembly of Ontario website…

• Government Bills (pdf)
• Government Bills – pre-legislative stages (pdf)
• Private Members Public Bills (pdf)
• Private Bills (pdf)
• Committee Bills (pdf)
• Acts and Regulations – when they come into force (pdf)