Good news for Ontario residents

Dear Editor,

Washington State regulators have rejected Ontario Hydro One’s bid to purchase Avista Utility Company of Washington State. Regulators concluded that the purchase was not in the best interest of Washington State citizens. I argue that the purchase is not in the best interest of Ontarians.

Avista Utility still relies on many coal-fired power plants to produce electricity and I was always concerned with the environmental risks at these sites and the potential costs to clean the soil. In my opinion a $103 million termination penalty is a small price to pay to avoid these unknown environmental risks in Washington State. Ontarians should not be taking on environmental risks in the U.S. where their environmental controls are not as strict as those in Canada.

As a stakeholder of Hydro One, I am very happy with this decision to reject the purchase of Avista. I hope the Ford Government and Hydro One do not appeal this decision.

It was always hypocritical of the former Wynne government to support this potential purchase given all their prior hype of closing down the last remaining coal-fired power plant in northern Ontario.

I hope that the new Hydro One board will not consider similar purchases. We need to concentrate on electricity issues in Ontario. This $3.4 billion set aside by Hydro One to purchase Avista should be used to upgrade our grid to lower delivery charges on our monthly electricity bills.

Rather then concentrating on the $103 million termination penalty the Opposition should be praising the Ford Government for avoiding these unknown environmental risks in Washington State. Ontarians and ratepayers should not be responsible for cleaning up environmental messes in Washington State.

We have enough Wynne government messes to clean up in Ontario – the costs of which have yet to be fully determined. Termination of this utility company purchase is great news for Ontario.

Jim McEwen