Hydro One’s Future

On the first day of trading an Ontario-based electricity utility stock on the TSX (perhaps since the days of Toronto Electric Light Company in the 1920s), I had the opportunity to comment on the future of the company and what might be done to improve the outlook for consumers. The overall theme of my remarks …

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Wynne’s Long Term Power Rate Plan: Transit Tax on Electricity

Amidst a storm of controversy yesterday at Queen’s Park surrounding a damning report from the new Financial Accountability Officer, the government yesterday reaffirmed that it is going to extract $4 billion from the proceeds of the Hydro One sale to spend on other government programs. Ontario Premier Wynne’s damn-the-torpedoes implementation of her plan for Hydro …

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Deputation to Finance Committee on Sale of Hydro One

(This posting contains both our speaking notes, posted about 20 minutes after presentation, and the official Hansard transcript. Following our presentation, Ed Clark made a presentation to the Finance Committee and made comments to the press. His comments and my reaction to his comments are ably reported here by Antonella Artuso for Sun Media. Our …

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National Post Column: “What Windfall?”

If there is anyone left in Ontario who thinks that the Ontario Liberals have the slightest clue as to the simplest facts of life about the province’s power system, Premier Wynne’s psychodelic impression that there is a vast stash of gold over at Hydro One should be the last straw.

Ontario Electricity Regulation Crisis Report Part 120: Application to Toronto Ombudsman

(Earlier today, I submitted the following request to Fiona Crean, Ombudsman, City of Toronto.) I am writing to request your office undertake an investigation into the April 15, 2014 Union Street Blackout that knocked out power to about one quarter of the City of Toronto. The factors causing that event and the utility’s response to …

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Restructuring and Privatizing Hydro One in the Public Interest

This morning, CBC’s Morning North program ran an interview I did with host Marcus Schwabe about the proposal from the Ontario Premier’s Advisory Council on Government Assets, chaired by Ed Clark, which last week issued an interim report proposing in part restructuring and privatizing parts of the Crown-own electricity wires company Hydro One.