Toronto           Listening to the ACORN Canada leadership at their annual general meeting discussing current and future organizational campaigns, some of the most animated discussion concerned some of the oldest ACORN issues, both in Canada over the last twenty years and ACORN over the last fifty:  rising electricity bills and continuing issues with banking practices.  Déjà vu, all over again!

ACORN Canada had celebrated a huge win, culminating in 2024, involving NSF, non-sufficient funds, charges from the country’s banks.  Many had been pyramiding NSF charges, so that the same check was bouncing not once, but repeatedly, as banks continued to pile on the NSFs until the original check was covered by the customer.  ACORN had succeeded in this campaign on many levels through actions, lobbying on policy with officials, and on the legal front, by matching our members with lawyers challenging the NSF system in court.

Nonetheless, talking about banking still broke the dam of continued frustration.  Some brought up what they saw as the regular account service charges larded on by banks.  Others brought up the new charges some banks have imposed on receiving a paper bank statement, rather than accessing online, despite the continuing digital divide for our members which has been the subject of ACORN’s “Internet for All” campaign.  Earlier during the board meeting some had questioned the amount of bank fees recorded in the audit, so now some, including me, wondered why banks charged commercial and nonprofit accounts the same exorbitant fees.  No decisions were made, but it was clear from the continuing rage that ACORN will still be engaging in banking issues this year and for years to come.

Electricity rates in Canada are also rising swiftly.  Canadians call these bills “hydro” here, because so much once came from dams.  Utility costs were one of the first big campaigns for ACORN in the USA.  The majority of ACORN Canada’s members are tenants, so the issue of whether the bill is paid by the landlord or separately metered always is a problem, as well as the fact that many apartments haven’t been retrofitted to modern standards that would reduce the amount of power leaked out throughout the unit.

Rising bills are increasingly an issue now in the US as well, because companies and regulators are passing on too many costs involved in modernizing investor-owned utilities that have cared more about their stock prices than their services, while enjoying guaranteed rates of return by regulators.  Upgrading the grid to be able to use increased production of alternative sources like solar and wind has been slow.  Demands to generate more power for data farms serving big tech and the race to expand artificial intelligence is now moving companies to expand plants, where earlier energy usage had been falling with more conservation.  Too much of the cost is not being absorbed by the tech conglomerates and passed onto consumers.

There are new twists to all of these campaigns, but despite ACORN having “been there and done that,” banks and utility companies never learn that there is a limit to what customers can bear, so it looks like we’ll begin going to the mattresses with them again.