Ontario's hydro deal has local utility feeling powerless

The announcement Thursday that the province plans to sell a 60-per-cent stake in Hydro One is discouraging news for Greater Sudbury Utilities, which for years has been trying to acquire the utility's customers in Greater Sudbury.

GSU spokesperson Wendy Watson said if the governing Liberals sell the majority of Hydro One shares through an initial public offering (IPO), it could spell the end of efforts to bring all hydro customers in Greater Sudbury into one utility.

"If that happens, our view is that our opportunity to acquire the Hydro One customers in the City of Greater Sudbury — and make the City of Greater Sudbury whole, as it were — would disappear," Watson said.

That would be particularly unfair, she said, considering Thursday's announcement also includes plans to allow Hydro One Brampton to merge with three other utilities in the Toronto area.

"We believe that's a precedent,” she said. “If they're doing that deal, why not do our deal?"

The province hopes to raise as much as $4 billion through the Brampton deal and the Hydro One IPO, money that will be used to help fund more than $31 billion in infrastructure projects the Liberals have planned.

Watson said officials at the GSU are talking with the province to try and find out what this all means for Sudbury.

"Our board chair and our CEO have been watching this and have been having conversations, pursuing what we hope to be an opportunity, and we'll see what happens,” she said. “But now with this announcement, there's more urgency than ever before.

"Three of the last four mayors have actively been involved in negotiating with the minister of energy — whether that's writing letters of support, or talking local MPPs, or doing whatever they can — there have been several resolutions passed by city council, sometimes acting as shareholders of Greater Sudbury Utility."

She said GSU customers pay rates that are 13-per-cent to 35-per-cent lower than Hydro One, depending on where they live. While it's a city owned utility, she said not everyone gets the same benefit.

"Only 44,000 of those shareholders actually get to enjoy the advantage of having their own local utility — with lower rates, higher levels of reliability, with a local office, so if they have a question, they can come in and actually meet with someone face to face," she said. "We believe it should be equitable for all citizens in Greater Sudbury."

Over the years, the GSU has made several overtures to Hydro One to acquire its 35,000 or so customers in the city.

"We have gotten to the point where we've made firm offers — based on fair market price — and Hydro One has said, no, we don't want to do that," Watson said.
While they don't want to overreact to Thursday's announcement, she said they are moving quickly to see if there's anything they can do.

"We are talking to the right people, we believe, and we'll try to move this forward,” she said. “We're exploring our options to see exactly what the best course is."