Terms & Conditions

Acceptance of Website Terms

Niagara-on-the-Lake Hydro Inc. (hereinafter referred to as “us”, “we” and/or “NOTL Hydro”) is pleased to provide this mobile application or website (the “Site”) for your personal, non-commercial use. Your access to and use of this Site (including by clicking to accept these terms of use) constitutes your acceptance of the following terms of use (the “Terms”) and your agreeance to comply with all applicable laws and regulations. If you do not agree to these Terms, you should immediately stop using this Site.

By using this Site, you represent and warrant that you are the legal age of majority under applicable law to form a binding contract with NOTL Hydro and meet all of the foregoing eligibility requirements. If you do not meet all of these requirements, you must not access or use the Site.

NOTL Hydro reserves the right to unilaterally modify these Terms from time to time without further notice to you. If we do this, we will post the changes to these Terms on the Site by indicating at the top of this page the date these Terms were last revised. It is your sole responsibility to regularly check the Site to determine if there have been any changes to these Terms and to review such changes. Your continued use of the Site after any revisions to these Terms are posted shall constitute your acceptance of, and agreement to be legally bound by, these Terms as revised.

Intellectual property rights and grant of limited license

The information, text, graphics, data, html code, media clips, icons, code or other materials on this Site (collectively the “Content”) are protected by copyright, as is the arrangement of the Content. NOTL Hydro either owns the Content of this Site or has acquired the appropriate licenses or permissions for the use of the Content by third party owners. Some of the names, words, phrases, designs and logos (collectively the “Marks”) on this Site, and any links from this Site may be protected as trademarks, service marks or trade names of NOTL Hydro or other owners. The Marks include, without limitation, the business name NOTL Hydro and the logo. (The Content and Marks are collectively referred to as the “Intellectual Property.”)

NOTL Hydro and the third party owners shall retain all rights, title, ownership and interests in the Intellectual Property. Unless otherwise mutually agreed upon, you agree that you may only use this Site for your personal and non-commercial use. You are expressly prohibited from copying, transferring, reproducing, storing, uploading, distributing, publishing, modifying, transmitting, re-posting or using, in whole or in part, any of the Intellectual Property without the prior written consent of NOTL Hydro or any third party owner. NOTL Hydro will take the appropriate legal action necessary to enforce its rights respecting any prohibited use of any Intellectual Property appearing on the Site.

You are hereby granted revocable permission to use the Content of the Site for informational, personal, non-commercial, lawful viewing only. This is a limited license grant, not a title transfer, and under this license you may not modify the Content, remove any copyright or proprietary notices from the Content, nor mirror the Content onto any other server. The display of the Marks on the Site does not imply that NOTL Hydro or any other owner grants you a license to use any of these Marks without the written permission of the owner.

Your use of the Site and Account Set-up and Security

The security of your personal information is very important to us. We use physical, electronic, and administrative measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to our Site. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Site. The safety and security of your information also depends on you. If you are using the Site, you, as a user, are responsible for obtaining your own access to the Site. You are required to ensure that all persons who access the Site through your Internet connection are aware of these Terms and comply with them.

The Site, including Content or areas of the Site, may require user registration to access certain functions (including the online customer self-serve portal function). It is a condition of your use of the Site that all the information you provide on the Site is correct, current and complete. Your provision of registration information you make to the Site through any functionality such as applications, email, chat functions, support requests and other such functions (collectively, “Interactive Functions”) constitutes your consent to all actions we take with respect to such information consistent with our Privacy Policy Statement.

Any username, password, or any other piece of information chosen by you, or provided to you as part of our security procedures, must be treated as confidential, and you must not disclose it to any other person or entity. You must exercise caution when accessing your account from a public or shared computer so that others are not able to view or record your password or other personal information. You understand and agree that should you be provided an account, your account is personal to you and you agree not to provide any other person with access to this Site or portions of it using your username, password, or other security information. You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized access to or use of your username or password or any other breach of security. You also agree to ensure that you log out from your account at the end of each session. You are responsible for any password misuse or any unauthorized access.

We reserve the right at any time and from time to time to disable or terminate your account, any username, password, or other identifier, whether chosen by you or provided by us, in our sole discretion for any or no reason, including any violation of any provision of these Terms.

Rules of use

You may not access the Site and/or the Content for any purpose that is unlawful or that is prohibited by these Terms. You agree that in accessing or using the Site or submitting any information or materials to NOTL Hydro you shall not:

  1. In any manner violate any applicable federal, provincial, local, or international law or regulation including, without limitation, any laws regarding human rights, the export of data or software, patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, or other intellectual property, legal rights (including the rights of publicity and privacy of others) or, in the course of using this Site, submit or upload any material that could give rise to any civil or criminal liability under applicable laws or regulations, or that otherwise may be in conflict with these Terms and/or our Privacy Policy Statement;
  2. Upload, post, transmit, link to or otherwise distribute any inappropriate, defamatory, indecent, offensive, threatening, harassing, abusive, fraudulent, libellous or unlawful material, or material that would constitute a criminal offence or give rise to civil liability, or information or material that violates any rights of another person or entity, or contains advertising, solicitations, bulk unsolicited emails or spam, chain letters, pyramid opportunities or offers for the sale of goods or services;
  3. Impersonate any person or entity, operate under an alias, conceal your identify or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your association with any person or entity, forge headers or otherwise manipulate username(s) in order to disguise the origin of any content you submit or otherwise transmit to NOTL Hydro via the Site;
  4. Circumvent, or attempt to circumvent, any measures or precautions taken by NOTL Hydro or any of its respective contractors to violate or prevent the use or access of the Site, or any action, in violation of these Terms, including, without limitation:
    • Attempt to damage, modify, alter or deface any part of the Site, any service(s) or any Content;
    • Post, transmit, link to or otherwise distribute any information or software which contains a virus, a trojan horse, worms, time bombs or other programming routines that damage, interfere with, capture, intercept, expropriate or adversely affect any computer systems, programs or the Site. You must take reasonable and appropriate precautions to ensure that any computer system used to access the Site is secure and free of viruses or other harmful or destructive properties;
    • Directly or indirectly, use or access, or encourage, solicit, permit, facilitate, aid, assist or abet the use or access of the Site through any manual process or any automatic, electronic or technical device, including but not limited to automated scripts, robots, crawls, screen scrapers, web bots, deep-links, indexes, spiders, click-spams, macro programs, or any other device, program, software, system, algorithm, methodology or technology, now known or hereinafter discovered, that performs the same or a similar function in order to, without limitation: data mine; screen scrape; data process; access, extract, copy, distribute, aggregate or acquire information; generate impressions or clicks; input or store information; search or generate searches; or manipulate or monitor any portion of the Content or the Site;
    • Use or access the Site in such a manner, or otherwise take any action, that taxes NOTL Hydro’s infrastructure to an unreasonable and disproportionate extent, or reduces the speed of the Site, that otherwise interferes with the normal functioning of the Site or otherwise abuses or overuses the Site;
    • Use the Site to gain unauthorized entry or access to other computer systems or networks;
    • Mirror the Site or any of its content on any other server without the express written permission of NOTL Hydro; and
    • Engage in any other conduct or activity that either conflicts with these Terms or that NOTL Hydro deems, in its sole, absolute and unfettered discretion, to be in conflict with these Terms.

Disclaimer and Limitation of Liability

This Site and the Content is provided for information purposes only. Access to this Site is provided on an “as is” basis, and while reasonable efforts are made to ensure the quality, accuracy and timeliness of the Content and the operation of this Site, NOTL Hydro makes no representations or warranties of any kind regarding this Site and/or the Content, including without limitation, any representations or warranties that:

  1. The Site or the Content will be accurate, complete, current, timely, merchantable or suitable for any particular purpose;
  2. The operation of the Site will be uninterrupted or error-free;
  3. Defects or errors in the Site or Content will be corrected;
  4. The Site will be free from viruses or harmful components;
  5. Communications to or from the Site will be secure and/or not intercepted; and
  6. The Site or the Content will not infringe any third party intellectual property.

You acknowledge and agree that you are using the Site solely at your own risk and liability. NOTL Hydro will not be responsible for any damages whatsoever, including, without limitation, direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential or punitive damages, arising out of or in connection with the Content or the use or inability to use this Site, whether such damages or injuries are based on contract, tort (including, without limitation, negligence and gross negligence), strict liability, or otherwise, even if NOTL Hydro has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Indemnity

As a condition of your use of the Site, to the extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless NOTL Hydro and its affiliates, and their respective officers, directors, employees, agents, successors and assigns from and against any and all claims, losses, costs, demands, suits, damages, actions, proceedings, liabilities and expenses, including reasonable attorneys and experts fees, suffered or incurred by NOTL Hydro from or related to your violation of these Terms or your use of the Site or any Content contained therein.

Confidentiality Warning

Absent the use of encryption, the Internet is not a secure medium and privacy cannot be ensured. Internet email is vulnerable to interception and forging. In using the Site, you agree to assume the risks associated with the transmission or loss of any data or information to or from NOTL Hydro on the Site, including the interception of such confidential data or information by third parties, and agree to be liable for any damages occurring as a result thereof.

Third Party Sites

This Site contains links to other websites (“Third Party Sites”). Third Party Sites were independently developed by parties other than NOTL Hydro. Links to Third Party Sites are provided solely as a convenience to you, and NOTL Hydro is not, in any manner, disseminating or endorsing the material contained therein. Your use of Third Party Sites is solely at your own risk and liability. NOTL Hydro assumes no responsibility whatsoever for Third Party Sites nor does NOTL Hydro make any representations or warranties of any kind with respect to Third Party Sites, including, without limitation, any representations or warranties:

  1. Regarding the accuracy, currency, quality or appropriateness of the information contained at the Third Party Sites;
  2. Regarding merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement of any material, content, software, goods or services located at or made available through Third Party Sites; and
  3. That the operation of Third Party Sites will be uninterrupted, error-free or free from viruses or other harmful components. Third Party Sites may collect your personal information (including information generated through the use of cookies) when you link to their websites. NOTL Hydro is not responsible for how such third parties collect, use or disclose your personal information.

Privacy and Security

For information regarding the way NOTL Hydro handles the privacy and security of your information, please refer to NOTL Hydro’s Privacy Policy Statement, which is incorporated into and forms part of these Terms.

Email Communications

NOTL Hydro adheres to a no spam policy. Therefore, you will not receive regular, unsolicited email communications from NOTL Hydro unless you have agreed otherwise or such communications are required for the purposes identified in these Terms or in NOTL Hydro’s Privacy Policy Statement, or to otherwise provide a product, service or information to you that you have requested.

Please note that NOTL Hydro reserves the right to contact you, by email or otherwise, if permitted or required by law or regulatory authorities, or if there has been a violation of these Terms.

Modifications and Termination

NOTL Hydro reserves the right to suspend, discontinue, terminate or modify any aspect of the Site or Content and/or your access to or use of the Site or Content at any time for any reason whatsoever, with or without notice to you. Upon termination, you agree to immediately delete or destroy any downloaded or printed material obtained from the Site. NOTL Hydro further reserves the right to refuse to post on the Site and the right to remove from the Site any information or materials, in whole or in part, that NOTL Hydro deems, in its sole discretion, to be inappropriate, unlawful or in violation of these Terms. If you are dissatisfied with the Site, any of the Content, or any of the Terms, rules, policies, or practices of NOTL Hydro in operating the Site, you acknowledge that your sole and exclusive remedy is to discontinue using the Site.

YOU WAIVE AND HOLD HARMLESS NOTL HYDRO, ITS AFFILIATES AND THEIR RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, SERVICE PROVIDERS, CONTRACTORS, LICENSORS, LICENSEES, SUPPLIERS, AND SUCCESSORS FROM ANY AND ALL CLAIMS RESULTING FROM ANY ACTION TAKEN BY NOTL HYDRO AND ANY OF THE FOREGOING PARTIES RELATING TO ANY INVESTIGATIONS BY EITHER NOTL HYDRO OR SUCH PARTIES OR BY LAW ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES.

We have no obligation, nor any responsibility to any party to monitor the Site or its use, and do not and cannot undertake to review material that you or other users submit to the Site. We cannot ensure prompt removal of objectionable material after it has been posted and we have no liability for any action or inaction regarding transmissions, communications, or content provided by any user or third party, subject to applicable laws.

Choice of Laws

The laws of the Province of Ontario and laws of Canada applicable therein shall govern any dispute relating to the use of this Site, including, without limitation, the interpretation of these Terms, despite any conflict of laws provisions in force where you live or the physical location of your computer system. You hereby consent to the jurisdiction of the courts of the Province of Ontario in any action or dispute relating to your use of this Site, and each party irrevocably submits to the exclusive jurisdiction of such courts in any such action or proceeding. You waive any and all objections to the exercise of jurisdiction over you by such courts and to the venue of such courts.

Entire Agreement

The Terms and our Privacy Policy Statement constitute the sole and entire agreement between you and NOTL Hydro regarding the Site and supersedes all prior and contemporaneous understandings, agreements, representations and warranties, both written and oral, regarding such subject matter.

Severability

The invalidity of any of the provisions of these Terms, as determined by a court of competent jurisdiction, shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions.

Reporting and Contact

All feedback, comments, requests for technical support, and other communications relating to the Site (including any notices of copyright infringement and reports of misuse) should be directed to our contact us page.

Supplementary Terms for Green Button™

This section applies with respect to customers using the Green Button™ functionality enabled by NOTL Hydro, including the features Download My Data (DMD), Connect My Data (CMD), and Manage My Data (MMD). The supplementary terms and conditions set out herein form part of the Terms described on this page, and you shall comply with all website Terms when using the Services described in Section 2 below.

NOTL Hydro is pleased to provide the Services described below for your personal use as part of the Ontario Energy Board’s initiative to implement the Green Button™ functionality. Your access to and use of the Services below (including by clicking to accept the Terms of use for the Site) constitutes your acceptance of the following supplementary terms (the “Supplementary Terms”) and your agreement to comply with all applicable laws and regulations. If you do not agree to these Supplementary Terms, you should immediately stop using the Services.

All feedback, comments, requests for technical support, and other communications relating to the Services (including notices of any kind) should be directed to our contact us page

Please read the following Supplementary Terms carefully before using the Services:

Additional Agreement

In addition to what is otherwise set out in these Terms, by accessing the Portal (defined below) or making use of the Services described below, you expressly agree to be bound by, accept and comply with these Supplementary Terms. If you do not agree with any of these Supplementary Terms, you must immediately exit and stop using the Services. If you do not agree with these Supplementary Terms, you may not read, link to, download or in any other way use information or Services provided on the Portal and should destroy all material obtained by you through your use of the Services.

Services

NOTL Hydro is pleased, in accordance with provincial regulations, to give customers access to their energy usage data, presented in the Green Button™ format (the “Consumption Data”). In accordance with the Green Button™ requirements, you may, through NOTL Hydro’s customer self-serve portal, via a third party access site belonging to NOTL Hydro’s representative (the “Portal”) as applicable, make use of the following features (the “Services”):

Download My Data (DMD): With Green Button™, you can download your data to gain better insight into your electricity use and patterns. This includes consumption details, billing information, and customer information.

Connect My Data (CMD): You can share your data with pre-approved Green Button™ third-party companies (the “Third Parties”) for additional insight into your electricity usage. You must give authorization for this information to be shared through the Portal. Your authorization can be revoked at any time by using the “Remove My Connection” function within the Portal.

Manage My Data (MMD): Through your self-serve portal, you have the ability to authorize, manage and remove any third-party connections.

Registration

Registration is required in order to access the Portal and use the Services. If you have an existing account for the customer self-serve portal accessible on the Site, you may access the Portal using the same username and password.

To register, you must enter the requested registration information online through our online portal registration page, which includes your email address, account number, your last NOTL Hydro bill amount and password that you create, a password hint and the CAPTCHA value appearing on the screen. An email will be sent to you immediately including a six-digit activation code to complete the registration. The activation code will only be valid for one hour. You are responsible for utilizing your activation code within this prescribed timeframe. After you enter the activation code, you will be asked to confirm your name and, once confirmed, you will get a confirmation on the screen and a welcome email to confirm that your registration was successful.

You will be solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of any personal username(s) or password(s) required by you to access the Portal, or required by you to use any of the Services, and for all activities that occur while using such personal username(s) or password(s). You agree not to share your password, let anyone else access your account and/or the Portal or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account and you agree to be responsible for all acts or omissions with respect to your user account. You agree to immediately notify NOTL Hydro of any unauthorized use of your personal username(s) and/or password(s). To preclude the risk that use of an automatic log-in capability may jeopardize the security of your account, NOTL Hydro recommends that you manually enter your username and password each time you access the Portal and use the Service(s).

You must be an existing NOTL Hydro customer to register to access the Portal and use the Services.

Authorization

The use of your username(s) and password(s) by you, or by any person with or without your knowledge or consent, is legally binding and makes you responsible to the same extent and effect as if you had given signed, written authorization to NOTL Hydro. You authorize NOTL Hydro to accept, without any further verification, and you agree to be responsible for, all activities with respect to your account and the Portal when conducted using your username(s) and/or password(s).

From time to time, NOTL Hydro may send you emails, to the email address specified in your contact information, relating to the Portal, the content or the use of the Services. By making use of the Services, you hereby consent to receive such emails. You will have the ability to unsubscribe to any or all marketing materials.

You may report any issues relating to the Services to NOTL Hydro on our contact us page or by calling 905-468-4235. NOTL Hydro shall record and file all issues reported by you or other customers. In reporting any issue, you consent to NOTL Hydro making the details of such reports and any information on measures taken to remedy any justified complaints available to third parties, as may be required by Applicable Law, for NOTL Hydro to comply with its obligations or maintain its stakeholder relationships.

Privacy and Security

As with the rest of these Terms, any personal information received or processed by NOTL Hydro in accordance with these Supplementary Terms shall be handled in accordance with Privacy Policy Statement.

By making use of the Services, you are accepting the practices described in the Privacy Policy Statement.

Disclaimer

The Portal and the Services for information purposes only. The Content of the Site does not represent any advice, commitment, representation or warranty by NOTL Hydro, nor does NOTL Hydro endorse any Third Parties to whom your Consumption Data is shared via CMD. Without limiting the foregoing, access to the Portal and the Services is provided on an “as is”, as and when available basis, and while reasonable efforts are made to ensure the quality, accuracy and timeliness of the Usage Data and the operation of the Portal, NOTL Hydro makes no representations or warranties of any kind regarding the Portal and/or the Services, including without limitation, any representations or warranties that: (i) the Portal will be accurate, complete, current, timely, merchantable or suitable for any particular purpose; (ii) the operation of the Portal will be uninterrupted or error-free; (iii) there will be no delays, difficulties in use, defects, incompatibility, failures, omissions or loss of transmitted information; (iv) defects or errors in the Portal or Services will be corrected; (v) the Portal will be free from any virus or other harmful component, trojan horse, worm, backdoor or other program code or programming instruction or set of instructions designed to disrupt, disable, harm interfere with or otherwise adversely affect computer programs, data files or operation; (vi) communications to or from the Portal will be secure and/or not intercepted or; (vii) the Portal or Services will not infringe any third-party Intellectual Property.

If you are making use of the CMD function of the Services, you further acknowledge and agree that NOTL Hydro’s sole obligation in the operation of CMD is to connect your Consumption Information to the Third Parties to whom you have authorized for such Consumption Information to be shared. NOTL Hydro shall not be responsible for the use of the Consumption Information by such Third Parties and you hereby waive any and all claims against NOTL Hydro, its affiliates, and their respective directors, officers, employees, agents, service providers, contractors, licensors, licensees, suppliers, and successors resulting from the use of the Consumption Information by such Third Parties. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, NOTL Hydro shall endeavour to ensure that any data provided through any Green Button™ functionalities shall be of the same accuracy and quality as other Green Button™ functionalities, including CMD.

NOTL Hydro may further suspend or terminate CMD access by a Third Party you have authorized where NOTL Hydro believes there is a risk arising from that Third Party’s behaviour. Where a Third Party’s suspension is lifted, any prior authorizations given by you will resume applying to that Third Party, and NOTL Hydro will not have an obligation to notify you of the same.

You further acknowledge that use of any Green Button™ functionality is available to active NOTL Hydro customers only, and that only customers with an active account status with NOTL Hydro may access or share their data via Green Button™ features, including the CMD functionality. Accordingly, you acknowledge and agree that you will not be able to access or share any data following the closing of your account, and will not be able to access or share any data for any period of time following the closing of your account, including, but not limited to your final billing period.

NOTL Hydro and its affiliates, and their respective officers, directors, employees, agents, successors and assigns will not be responsible or liable for any delay, damage, loss or inconvenience you or any other person may incur if you are unable to access the Services or experience any delay in the processing of any transaction for any reason whatsoever (including without limitation due to any malfunction of the Services or the Portal).

NOTL Hydro reserves the right to make changes at any time, without notice or obligation, to the contents of the Portal and/or the Services.

Limitation of Liability

In addition to anything else set out in the Terms, You acknowledge and agree that you are using the Services solely at your own risk and liability. NOTL Hydro and its affiliates, and their respective officers, directors, employees, agents, successors and assigns will not be responsible for any damages whatsoever, including without limitation direct, indirect, special, incidental, economic, exemplary, consequential or punitive damages, arising out of or in connection with the Services or the use of or inability to use the Portal or Services, including but not limited to any damages caused by any failure to perform, error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, computer virus and other damage to computers, computer networks or other property, communication line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, alteration of, or use of record or data or information or programs or Consumption Information, whether such damages or injuries are based on contract, tort (including, without limitation, negligence and gross negligence), strict liability, or otherwise, even if NOTL Hydro has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Indemnity

In addition to anything else set out in the Terms, as a condition of your use of the Services, you agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless NOTL Hydro and its affiliates, and their respective officers, directors, employees, agents, successors and assigns from and against any and all claims, losses, costs, demands, suits, damages, actions, proceedings, liabilities and expenses, including reasonable attorneys and experts fees, suffered or incurred by NOTL Hydro from or related to your violation of these Supplemental Terms or your use of the Portal, the Services or any Consumption Information contained therein.

Records Retention

You are solely responsible for maintaining your own record of activity using the Service, and for retaining all copies of NOTL Hydro Invoices and other relevant data. Any record retention services performed by NOTL Hydro are solely at NOTL Hydro’s discretion and may be discontinued by NOTL Hydro at any time with or without notice to you.