The Consumers Council of Canada has been determined by the Ontario Energy Board to be eligible under section 30 of the Ontario Energy Board Act, 1998 to participate in a coordinated consultation to develop three related elements of a Renewed Regulatory Framework for Electricity. The objectives of the three consultations are:

• Distribution network investment planning: To ensure that distributor investment plans are demonstrably economically efficient and cost-effective, and paced so as to match required expenditures with fair and reasonable rate adjustments and predictable changes to the elements of customer bills affected by the plans;
• Rate mitigation: To provide utilities and the Board with a set of tools, approaches or options to help mitigate the effects of unavoidable and significant rate/bill impacts; and
• Defining and measuring electricity utility performance: To create conditions which will foster the cost-effective and efficient implementation of Board- approved network investment plans by transmitters and distributors through the establishment of appropriate standards for performance and efficiency, the provision of appropriate incentives, and the review of utility performance.