HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2016-04-06, Page 44 Huron Expositor • Wednesday, April 6, 2016
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Huron Expositor
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Lau'a
Hydro One problems hidden from scrutiny
Any future claims by
the Liberal govern-
ment of Ontario Pre-
mier Kathleen Wynne that
it is committed to openness
and transparency should
be measured against the
fact Hydro One has now
gone dark to public
scrutiny.
The Liberals' sale of 60%
of the formerly public utility
that owns and runs Ontar-
io's electricity transmission
system, and directly bills 1.3
million customers, has
freed Hydro One from pub-
lic oversight, including
watchdogs such as the audi-
tor general and
ombudsman.
One of the first effects of
this sale to private interests is
that last week's release of its
annual Sunshine List of
public servants paid more
than $100,000 a year, no
longer includes Hydro One
employees.
Last May, the Legislature's
independent watchdogs
wrote an extraordinary letter
to Wynne's government, urg-
ing it to keep Hydro One sub-
ject to their review. Without
it, they warned:
The Auditor General would
not be able to conduct per-
formance audits of Hydro
One.
The Ombudsman would
have no ability to investigate
public complaints about
Hydro One.
The Information and Pri-
vacy Commissioner would
no longer be able to oversee
the right of access to Hydro
One records.
"¢ The Financial
letter to the editor
Apples to apples with community centres
To the editor,
Thank you to Huron East
councillor Ray for bringing for-
ward the problem of our com-
munity centres. They are always
going to need tax payers' sup-
port. But let's not put all 3 rec
centres in Huron East on the
same page. They each serve
their communities in their own
unique way.
Vanastra has their day care,
pool and community centre.
Seaforth has an ice surface
and community centre.
Brussels has an ice surface,
community centre, outdoor
pool, soccer fields, and 2 ball
fields.
Each centre has a committee
to run the day to day routines
BUT if a grant becomes available
council steps on them, applies
for the grant and any excess
expense goes against an already -
approved budget. Much needed
maintenance is usually cut out
to balance the budget. Then
whatever needs upgraded gets
left behind and becomes a more
costly expense. Again it goes
against the operating budget.
Arenas are only buildings that
Accountability Officer would
not be able to examine the
impact of planned Hydro
One operations on consum-
ers or the economy.
"(G The Integrity Commis-
sioner would no longer
review Hydro One expense
claims.
Last December, Auditor
General Bonnie Lysyk
reported that between 2010
and 2014, its customers expe-
rienced 24% more outages
lasting 30% longer, while
maintenance costs increased
31%.
She described Hydro One
as "consistently one of the
least reliable among large
Canadian electricity
distributors"
Meanwhile, former
Ontario ombudsman Andre
Marin reported his office
join the capital and operating.
To be a fair comparison, the
report needs to compare apples
to apples. Brussels must take
out the expenses for the pool,
ball fields and soccer fields.
Brussels must budget for grass
cutting and snow removal.
Those hours are not easily
tracked without detailed time
sheets of various tasks com-
pleted. Keep in mind, also that
council further donates $8000
to Seaforth pool and St Colum -
ban soccer fields. Maybe it's
time to area -rate the entire rec-
reation back to the wards and
had received hundreds of
complaints about unex-
plained billings, "catch-up"
bills, "estimated" bills, mul-
tiple bills and over -billing
and that trying to get
answers was like "wrestling
with a slippery pig."
Marin warned Hydro One
customers not to allow it to
withdraw money from their
bank accounts because in
some cases it had overdrawn
thousands of dollars and
refused to return it, even
after admitting it was in
error. Instead, Hydro One
would only give customers
credit towards future
billings.
Going forward the public
has no independent way of
knowing whether these prob-
lems are being addressed, or
getting worse.
let's see what happens.
In the past, Seaforth and
Vanastra received grants for var-
ious arena projects. Brussels
awaits their turn but is becom-
ing quite restless.
It is council's mandate to pro-
vide recreation to all taxpayers
in their municipality. It won't be
easy to keep everyone happy but
please review the picture on a
fair/equal gameplan.
We cannot continue to do
today's business with yesterday's
ideas.
-Former Mayor Joe Seili, Brussels
seaforth h u ronexpositor.com
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