OPUC process far from clear
Words are easy to say, carrying out their meaning is the hard part.
Ever since the Oshawa Power and Utilities Corporation announced it was looking into a merger with Whitby Hydro and Veridian, it’s been pushing a message of transparency.
However, when one takes a deeper look at things, there are a lot of questions that remain unanswered.
Take, for example, many of the statements made not only by the OPUC, but also by the city’s politicians, who have picked up many of the same buzzwords surrounding the idea of a merger.
“Synergies” seems to be the word of the month around the OPUC office. However, at the end of the day, synergies is just a nice, corporate-friendly way of saying that a potential merger could lead to people losing their jobs.
On the merger microsite, there are a list of approximately 40 questions that many people would be asking about a potential merger of three of the region’s utility companies.
However, about a quarter of them don’t really have answers, instead stating “we are at the beginning of a process” and that answers will be forthcoming. Questions about bill increases are met with claims of “mitigating against” future increases. For the average person who is already having to worry about tax bills that go up every year and other unending expenses, saying “we’ll try our darndest” doesn’t really seem to cut it.
The OPUC should be applauded for one thing: releasing the memorandum of understanding document that was signed between the three corporations. However, in a process that was claimed to be transparent, that document was only released after numerous requests from both the media and the public.
As the saying goes, one swallow does not make a summer.
In a process that was sprung on the people of Oshawa out of nowhere and without their say, the OPUC needs to start providing the public with real answers to their questions, rather than hiding behind corporate buzzwords and promises of maybe providing answers in the future. After all, while the companies will be the ones reaping the financial benefits of the merger, we will be the ones left paying for any mistakes.