Privatize Toronto Hydro

Toronto mayor John Tory presented his case for the sale of Toronto Hydro to CBC’s Matt Galloway on September 22. Every element of Mayor Tory’s argument justifying the sale is nonsense. Yet, the very weakness of the mayor’s case makes a strong argument that Toronto Hydro should be sold. Toronto Hydro should be privatized because …

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Ontario Electricity Regulation Crisis Report Part 132: Inside the CityPlace Blackouts (Corrected)

Folks following this series have seen it all before. The rash of CityPlace blackouts knocking out power to thousands of units in Toronto’s CityPlace district at the end of August and early September bear many similarities so many blackouts documented here before, such as Hurricane Sandy (October 2013), Thornecliff Park (March 2013), and Union Street …

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Ontario Electricity Regulation Crisis Report Part 130: Stonewalled by Guardians (Again)

Part 125 of this series featured a guest post by two retired Toronto Hydro employees, Paul Kahnert and David Grant, documenting their efforts to get action from the City’s Ombudsman, the City’s Auditor General, and the Ontario Energy Board in investigating evidence of negligence, perjury, and fraudulent claims by Toronto Hydro and its CEO Anthony …

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Ontario Electricity Regulation Crisis Report Part 128: What’s the State of Repair of Toronto’s Electricity Distribution System?

Readers of this series may have noted that in my efforts to seek the assistance of the City of Toronto Ombudsman in bringing to light governance and operational deficiencies at Toronto Hydro (presented in Parts 120, 122, 123, 124), I learned that a group of Toronto Hydro retirees was on a parallel path. Part 125 …

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Ontario Electricity Regulation Crisis Report Part 127: Poley McPoleface

With credit to Boaty McBoatface, it’s time for Toronto to have its own Poley McPoleface. In part 126 of this series, I introduced initial documentation of a pole being replaced as part of Toronto Hydro’s so called “aging assets” replacement program.

Ontario Electricity Regulation Crisis Report Part 125 Guest Post: Stonewalled by Guardians

What follows is a guest post presented by two former Toronto Hydro employees, Paul Kahnert and David Grant. They document their unsuccessful efforts on behalf of a larger group of retirees with intimate knowledge of the utility to engage the City’s Ombudsman, the City’s Auditor General, and the Ontario Energy Board in investigating malpractice at …

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Guest Post: “Who Will Regulate Electricity Distribution?” by Jay Shepherd

Toronto Hydro is by far the most costly and least reliable large urban electricity distribution utility in Ontario. But, behind the fog of the New Year’s holiday season the OEB slipped out approval for yet another whopping suite of rate increases, rewarding more bad behaviour at Toronto Hydro. Typical of the standards of truth that …

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Ontario Electricity Regulation Crisis Report Part 124: Toronto’s Interim Ombudsman Responds

I received the attached letter from the City of Toronto Interim Ombudsman in response to my posting at Part 122 of this series. The new letter, which follows a letter from Hydro One’s ombudsman (Part 123), characterizes my comments in Part 122 as containing “misleading statements”. I have comments on several details of that letter. …

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