Song about high Hydro One bills gains Internet fame

By Cody Starr and Rachel Bell

BELLEVILLE – A Stirling man’s song about high Hydro One bills is going viral online.

In a Facebook video, musician Dave Bush performs the song on acoustic guitar, complaining about Hydro One’s high bills. It is an issue that many Ontarians are unhappy about, as charges for debt retirement, delivery and line loss as power is distributed have been added over the years.

In an interview Tuesday with QNet News, Bush said he had been tinkering with The Hydro Song for about a year. This summer, he said, he finally got up the courage to make a music Facebook account and post some of his songs.

“I put a few of my other songs up. I think one got 3,000 views, and I couldn’t believe it. So I thought, ‘Well, let’s throw the next one up.’ It was The Hydro Song. And kaboom, things went really crazy.”

The song has surpassed one million views, and has 45,934 shares and 6,262 likes.

Bush said he’s fortunate that his own hydro bills are reasonable. But he’s bothered by things like the line-loss charge, a fee to consumers for small amounts of power lost in the delivery process, he said.

The song seems to have touched a nerve with Ontarians, many of are frustrated with high hydro bills, he said.

“I had a ton of messages from people saying they had to choose between food and hydro. A lot of these people are on a fixed income or pension, (including) single parents. All kinds of messages from people who have to watch every nickel because the hydro bill is coming and it’s going to be a big one.”

But on the flip side, he said, people need to realize that practically everything in their homes uses power: “You have a microwave running? That’s drawing power because of the clock.” We need to realize that all those little things that draw power add up, and that we can all do a better job at conserving energy, he said.

Bush has even had feedback on his song from Hydro One employees, he said, adding that he’s happy about that. “Because I’m clear in my song – it’s not the feet on the street. That’s not the problem. That’s not why it’s so expensive. It’s not the people working on the lines, in the forestry division and engineering. I have no problem with them – they earn their money. I have no issue with that whatsoever.”