Conservative leader Tim Hudak slammed the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) as a wasteful entity, wrote the Ottawa Citizen Sept. 24 in a story about an Ontario Energy Board (OEB) decision to allow electricity distributors to make higher profits:

The Conservative leader said that, while the agency has expanded, it has yet to fulfil its central mandate by producing a long-term energy plan.

But one energy expert says the OPA doesn’t deserve all the blame. York University Professor Mark Winfield, of the Faculty of Environmental Studies, says the Liberal government hasn’t enabled the OPA to fulfil its mandate.

“There’s no direction from the government to the OPA,” Winfield said. “There’s no overall vision or strategy about where we’re going.”

The Toronto Sun quoted Professor Gordon Roberts in its coverage of this issue Sept. 24:

The Ontario Energy Board thinks you’re not paying enough for hydro so it’s yanking another $60 out of your wallet.

Ontario hydro ratepayers — already hammered by the HST, time-of-use pricing and rate hikes — will pay an added $240 million a year, the Ontario NDP says.

Officials at the provincial crown agency — whose salaries are paid for through hydro bills — decided earlier this year that utilities should be able to boost their rate of return to 9.85% from 8.39%.

. . .

Gordon Roberts, a professor at the Schulich School of Business at York University, who made a submission to the OEB on behalf of Pollution Probe, recommended a lower rate. “It’s generous,” Roberts said. “Clearly, if the answer comes out on the generous side (for utilities), it’s less fair for the ratepayers.”

Roberts also spoke about the hydro profits issue on CBC Radio and CBC-TV, Sept. 23.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile – York University’s daily e-bulletin.