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Author Archives: energyprbe
Hydro One shift could cost $13.5M
Turning Hydro One Inc. into an income trust or not-for-profit corporation could force the Ontario government to pay out at least $13.5-million in buyout fees for four of the transmitter’s senior managers, including Eleanor Clitheroe, the chief executive.
Ms. Clitheroe and three senior executives have escape clauses in their contracts that they could exercise should the province embark upon a "fundamental change" of policy for the company, according to the prospectus filed in connection with Hydro One’s initial public offering.
Ontario Power generates $217 million loss
Subsidies to big power users and zooming costs for restarting the Pickering A nuclear generator have helped to turn last year’s profit into this year’s loss at Ontario Power Generation Inc.
The giant generator, owned by the province, reported a loss of $217 million for the three months ended March 31, compared with a profit of $102 million a year earlier.
Hydro pay deals `inappropriate': Premier
Premier Ernie Eves says the golden parachutes provided for senior officials at publicly owned Hydro One are "inappropriate."
Eves faced criticism in the Legislature again yesterday for allowing the government-appointed Hydro One board to hand out such deals to five executive members, totalling about $13 million.
"I regard those amounts as being inappropriate," the Premier said in the Legislature, adding he has already asked Energy Minister Chris Stockwell to look into it.
Cut power use, Ontario warns
Ontario could be flirting with power shortages if electricity consumers don’t move quickly to conserve, Energy Minister Chris Stockwell says.
Recent scorching temperatures pushed Ontario to hit near-peak demand yesterday, forcing the province to scramble to buy power from other jurisdictions, including the United States where much of the electricity is produced by highly polluting coal-fired plants.
Executive pay for OPG 'unrealistic,' critic charges
Senior executives at Ontario Power Generation Inc., which generates the bulk of Ontario’s electricity, are getting paid far too much money given the disastrous performance of the company, a top critic of the province’s energy policy said yesterday.
Tom Adams, the executive director of Energy Probe, a Toronto-based think tank, called OPG compensation levels "the next shoe to drop" in continuing scrutiny of the successor companies to Ontario Hydro.
Psst! Here's the real scandal at Hydro
Eleanor Clitheroe’s limousine bills are scandalous, no doubt about it. But in the vast train wreck that is Hydro, they matter about as much as a broken light bulb in the caboose.
Sure, $330,000 is a lot of dough. But so is $22-billion. Which is more or less what public ownership of Hydro has cost the people of Ontario.
Capitalists may be rapacious villains. But governments are worse. The political mismanagement of Hydro stretches back a generation, and has been ruinously costly, and shows no sign of ending.
Ambitious Plans in Disarray at Canada Utility
TORONTO — The names of Hydro One’s directors have disappeared from the corporate Web site. So has the prospectus that Hydro One, Ontario’s dominant power transmission company, filed earlier this year for what was to have been the biggest public stock offering in Canadian history.
Ontario's growing Hydro scandal
The Eves government of Ontario, in an obvious attempt to humiliate one of its own corporate appointees, had no trouble digging up and releasing details of Eleanor Clitheroe’s compensation as CEO of Hydro One. At this rate, we should all soon be reviewing Ms. Clitheroe’s expense account chits and tax returns. Which is all great political sport if you’re in the business of trying to convert policy disasters into victories.
Keeping Hydro One, dumping Clitheroe
Concerns over the remuneration of Eleanor Clitheroe, the former Chief Executive Officer of Ontario’s electricity distributor, Hydro One, are not unfounded. Last year, Ms. Clitheroe earned $2.18-million in salary for running the public company. According to the government, she also billed $330,000 for limousine service over three years, joined seven clubs at public expense, and used $40,000 of Hydro One funds (only recently repaid) to renovate her house. In short, she received opulent and arguably excessive rewards from the public purse.
Eves advisor to run agency that handles Ontario Hydro debt
One of the closest advisors to Ontario’s premier, Ernie Eves, has been named chief executive of the agency that issues the province’s bonds and manages the former debt of the old Ontario Hydro monopoly.
Michael Gourley is the new CEO of the Ontario Financing Authority (OFA) and the Ontario Electricity Financial Corp. (OEFC). His appointment took effect this month, and the job will pay between $225,000 and $300,000 a year.
Energy Probe 