NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is urging the McGuinty Liberals to do more to protect Ontarians living in poverty from rising energy costs.

Horwath also wants to make conservation and energy retrofit programs affordable and accessible to all Ontarians, an approach she is championing as “affordable environmentalism”.

“With Ontario losing 70,000 jobs a month, more and more Ontario families are finding it difficult to afford sky-rocketing energy bills,” said Horwath.

“The McGuinty government’s piecemeal pilot projects are simply not sufficient – Ontario needs a province-wide reduced hydro rate for people with low incomes.”

She also wants conservation measures and energy retrofit initiatives to be within financial reach.

“That’s what affordable environmentalism is all about. People want to make the right choices for themselves, their families and the environment, but they need to be able to afford to do so,” she said.

Horwath is calling on the government to move quickly on her proposals.

“We desperately need an affordable energy program that takes in the practices from the environmental movement and combines them with a commitment to social justice. With more and more families scrambling to pay the rent and put food on the table, now is the time for the McGuinty government to finally deliver,” she said.