Last night at the close of business, the Ontario Energy Board publicly announced a reorganization of the Board’s administrative functions. The public announcement includes this statement — “the Chief Operating Officer to become Executive Advisor to the Chair & CEO”. This brief comment hints at a simultaneous, but undisclosed, reorganization of the Board’s decision making functions.

To highlight the moving parts, it is useful to review the previous organization, shown here.

The previous organization chart disclosed both the Board’s decision making and administrative functions. The Management Committee and the COO are both identified in a manner consistent with Sections 4.2 and 5 respectively of the Board’s legislative mandate, the OEB Act.

The Board’s new decision making organization, not disclosed to the public in the Board’s announcement, is here.
Chair’s Office, 1, January 16, 2014
With this new structure, all roads lead to the chair, the Management Committee of the Board is shoved aside, and the COO position is eliminated. All these features of the new organization are inconsistent with the OEB Act.

Pursuant to Section 4 of the MOU between the OEB and the Energy Minister, Minister Chiarelli would have approved this brave new world of public utility regulation in Ontario.

Previous instalments of this series have discussed how weaknesses at the Ontario Energy Board have impacted service to consumers.