We have been doing rolling releases for hospitals across Ontario, and the rising costs of electricity that these hospitals face. We received responses to our freedom of information requests for several hospitals in the Ottawa area that show the trend continues in that region.

The Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) has seen their bills go from 1,944,796 in 2012 to 2,103,931 in 2016. That's an 8 per cent increase of $159,135. 

The Ottawa Civic Hospital has seen their bills go from 10,710,951 in 2011/12 to 13,028,240 in 2016/17. That's a nearly 22 per cent increase of $2,317,289.

The University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) has seen their bills increase from 1,217,452 in 2012 to 1,418,452 in 2016. That's a 16.5 per cent increase of $201,000.

The only facility that saw bills go down was Carelton Place and District Memorial Hospital, which has seen bills go from 161,210.67 to 155,396.55 in 2016/17. That's a 3.7 per cent decrease, and was one of the only decreases we've seen in the results we have received to date.

We all know about the increased bills we've been seeing at home, but sometimew we forget what these bills mean for the institutions we rely on. The more these bills go up, the less of a hospital's budget can be used to care for patients.