Lack of OPUC quarterly reports an “oversight”
Report mandated by shareholder's agreement has not been brought to council in more than two years; city manager says report would not have prevented council from learning about merger plans
By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express
It’s a stipulation that has been in place for years, and the OPUC has been holding up its end of the bargain – but somewhere along the line, a breakdown in communication has occurred.
According to the shareholder’s agreement between the Oshawa Power and Utilities Corporation and the City of Oshawa, the OPUC is responsible for submitting quarterly reports to the city manager which are then repurposed into updates to council.
However, for more than two years, no reports have been filed, with the last OPUC quarterly report finding its way on to a council agenda in the first quarter of 2014.
Jag Sharma, Oshawa’s current city manager who took the helm in December, says that due to the heavy turnover in senior staff, the reports have been overlooked.
“That was an oversight. With all the transition we had in staff, it certainly was a gap that was missed, so they will be resuming to council,” he says, noting the correction will be made “as quickly as possible.”
However, due to a “systems issue” at the OPUC, that first report will not appear before mid-summer, as records will need to be manually retrieved.
Sharma says these reports deal strictly with financials and things of that nature, and would not necessarily have prevented council from learning about merger talks before the announcement of OPUC exploring a merger with Whitby Hydro and Veridian.
“With respect to the quarterly reports, they wouldn’t necessarily be focused on something like that. It would just be their financial performance,” he says.
However, according to the shareholder’s agreement, these reports are meant to focus on numerous topics, including “financial and other reports from the HoldCo Board with respect to the operations of the Corporation, WiresCo and any other Subsidiary.”
OPUC CEO Atul Mahajan says these reports generally focus on “key highlights” from the quarter, including safety, conversation and demand management and energy efficiency projects.