Sault coffee and donut shops getting walloped, business owner says

Being a small business owner is always a challenge, but electricity prices are financially zapping Steve and Lucy Fronzi, who own two Country Style coffee shops and three M&M Meat Shops in the Sault.

Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath and Sault byelection NDP candidate Joe Krmpotich paid an official visit to the Country Style location at 275 Second Line West Friday to look over copies of Fronzi’s commercial electricity bills and listen to her concerns.

“Our hydro costs are a huge percentage of our operating expenses and we’ve done what we thought we should do to reduce our hydro costs,” Fronzi told SooToday.

“In our stores we put timers on our freezer doors, we changed all our lights to LED lights, we put in a system that tries to regulate differences in temperature, but to no avail.”

Fronzi said she has not had to cut staff at any of her stores, “but our  costs are unbelievable.”

It is estimated hydro bills for each of her business locations are at $2,000 per month.

Fronzi said she and her husband have sought provincial aid with their commercial electricity costs, but said “there’s nothing, we’ve searched.”

“Privatizing hydro is not the way to go, because these licensed energy retailers come and tell you we’re going to reduce your hydro bills, we start getting into it and they’re not reduced…I think I’m a very astute business person and I got taken, so I can imagine how seniors and other people will be fooled as we were,” Fronzi said.

The NDP has voiced its opposition to the government’s sale of Hydro One and has said a New Democrat government would cut hydro rates for Ontarians by 30 per cent.

The ruling Liberal government of Premier Kathleen Wynne has already unveiled its own plan to slash hydro rates by 25 per cent.

The Progressive Conservatives have stated their strategy to reduce hydro rates will be revealed sometime before the 2018 general election.