With the recent proposed price increase for electricity by London Hydro, students at Fanshawe and staff at student residencies are concerned about the impact it could have on the cost of living in the city.
The concerns come after London Hydro announced yesterday that it intends to raise rates in the city by approximately $6 per month or $72 per year, citing cost of business and infrastructure upgrades as the reason why.
Meanwhile at Fanshawe, many students haven’t heard of the proposed price raises. However, when informed, they expressed concern about how it may add to larger financial problems that students face.
“The cost of living for people is absolutely nightmarish right now,” said first-year pharmacy technician student Charley Crann.
While Crann lives at home still, she says she understands the problems students living in residence face with paying for utilities.
For other students, an increase in hydro prices may be difficult to budget for. First-year environmental technologies student Avery Clarkson said he believes students may have to rework their monthly budgets.
Hydro lines running through Kestrel Court. The proposed increase in London Hydro rates could have long-term consequences on student finances.
Photo by: Curtis Stokman
“As someone who just recently moved to London and is living in an apartment myself, that’s an additional $72 I could spend on food,” said fellow first-year environmental technologies student Lukas Krikstaponis. “I’d rather have the funds available to have more food than pay for hydro unnecessarily.”
Elliott Anderson, another environmental technologies student, added that as a lifelong London resident, a potential hike in hydro prices would add to the list of things she’s seen become more expensive.
“On top of Doug Ford cutting OSAP, the grocery prices rising, everything on top of that, it just makes everything a lot harder,” she said.
Anderson also voiced questions about whether or not the proposed price raises were necessary, believing the provincial government should eat the cost.
For people working in student residency, the long-term effects of a price raise on hydro also pose concerns. Leasing agent at Foundry First Ariel Sparks compared the potential consequences to the metaphor of a frog not noticing it’s being boiled in a pot of water as the temperature is gradually increased.
“I think at first it’ll be nominal, and you won’t be able to tell until at the end of the year you’re like ‘oh, I’ve spent way more than I thought on the utilities’,” said Sparks. “That’s going to trickle down into their books and their tuitions.”
Sparks also believes that hydro prices may influence the rental market for off-campus student housing, especially since she is unaware of any incentives or assistance that Foundry or Fanshawe provides to students for housing. She added that she thinks a flat rate or cap rate for students and student housing would help students with hydro prices.
“That’s just one idea that could be tossed in the pot,” she said.
If approved, the price increase would take effect on May 1, 2027.
