Let the Big Smoke generate their own power!
To the Expositor:
It is quite clear by the contents of letters popping up in recent editions of The Expositor that Island residents are becoming ever more concerned about the seemingly ever-increasing Hydro One rates including exorbitant delivery charges along with the notorious and infamous “debt retirement charge.” I believe that these letters are just the tip of the iceberg because, well, let’s face facts, if Hydro One rates continue to rise at this alarming rate (some experts have projected a 40 percent rise over the next few years) regular working families simply won’t be able to afford it. It’s almost unthinkable to believe that hydro may become a commodity that only the rich can afford!
The funny thing is Hydro One doesn’t even seem to attempt to hide this gouging; this ongoing “debt retirement charge” goes way back to the old Ontario Hydro Crown Corporation when they let a retiring CEO write their own severance and pension settlement and it has been on hydro bills ever since and like sheep to the slaughter, local hydro consumers have just continued to pay year after year after year.
A few years back I was at a store in Mindemoya and a few locals were gathered and the subject of higher hydro bills cropped up and discussion on the subject was going back and forth and the debt retirement charge was mentioned. All of a sudden an elderly woman stopped in the aisle and said, “You fellas don’t actually pay that, do you?” Every one kind of stood there with there mouths open. She continued, saying, “Does anyone help you pay your debt off? I simply deduct that charge from my bill each month and attach a note to Hydro One stating that this charge is unjustified and I have no intention of paying for someone else’s debt!” She concluded that she had done this for years and had never heard a peep out of Hydro One!
In a letter from Beth Richards (‘Facing another winter of Hydro One discontent, October 8, page 4) on the subject, she states that she feels we should have our own hydro corporation locally like they do in cities. I certainly concur but, therein lay the problem of living in an area where a lot of residents for various reasons (personal incomes, environmental concerns, property value concerns, business concerns, retirement and vacation potential etc., etc.) really resist change, especially in the area of power generation.
Any local power generation corporation would be too small to purchase hydro from other areas like most of the city companies do so the alternative is to produce your own power using natural elements like sun, wind or water and as we all know from the past, just mentioning these kinds of industries could be paramount to starting a Manitoulin Civil War!
On a personal note, my preference would be solar farms, which maximizes the number of units per area and gives you the best return!
As for Hydro One, solutions need to start at the top. Note: The CEO of a public corporation is worth a million dollar salary (and I have no reason to believe that Ms. Richards’ statement on this isn’t completely correct—I’m sure she did her research). You hear of these outrageous wastes of public dollars all the time but it seems that the Ontario government is simply doing nothing about it. If the CEO of WSIB, David Marshall, can keep his job after being found to get a $400,000/year salary with bonuses for every denied or reduced worker’s claim it doesn’t give you a lot of hope that this government will act to correct any of the other travesties.
At the end of the day one thing all this disgust with hydro delivery to the North does is continue to solidify the idea that a separate “Province of Northern Ontario” just may be the way to go! Let the Big Smoke generate their own power and let our Northern sun, wind and water take care of its own!
Thank you,
Greg Young
Wikwemikong
