John Baird, for the record, on hydro bills

Ottawa Citizen - October 10, 2002

Yesterday, Liberal MPP Michael Bryant questioned Nepean MPP and Energy Minister John Baird on his confusion over Ontario's new power bills. Below is an edited transcript of their exchange.

Michael Bryant: Minister, your inability to read a hydro bill yesterday testifies to your government's hydraulic incompetence on matters of energy. It is not enough to say that you have only been the minister for 40 days. I would have thought that every member of the government caucus could explain a hydro bill to a constituent.

You have had seven years to ensure reliable and affordable electricity to Ontarians and to provide hydro bills that make sense, and yet yesterday, in your own words, hydro bills for all Ontarians are "gobbledegook."...

When, minister, are Ontarians going to get clear and accountable hydro bills? When are they going to be spared this continued gobbledegook?

John Baird: When you go around the province of Ontario, whether you're in Sault Ste Marie and have Great Lakes Power or whether you're in the city of Ottawa and have Ottawa Hydro or you're here in the city of Toronto and have Toronto Hydro, every hydro company ... has their own way of presenting things.

Frankly, I'm a consumer just like everyone else.

Mr Bryant: That's the problem.

Mr. Baird: The member opposite says that's the problem. This is the party that voted against standardized property-tax assessment bills because they didn't like that. They said it was overly prescriptive and it was the government meddling in things.

I think it would be important that every local distribution company in the province be able to present clearly and in plain language their charges to the consumer. I do think it is a better system now that we can actually break out these expenditures. In the past, people didn't know all of the expenses for which they were charged

Mr Bryant: Unbundling bills was a good idea, but obviously the execution was a failure if the energy minister can't read energy bills. I think the minister would agree we need to standardize the bills ... When are you going to fix the bills?

Mr Baird: I agree with the member opposite that confusion in the marketplace is unhelpful. Confusion is unhelpful when it comes to hydro rates; it's also unhelpful when it comes to political promises.

Let's look at what Dalton McGuinty said. He said in one clip, "I am in favour of privatization both in terms of the transmission and the generation. I think it's the right way to go." Then the consumers of political information get the following: "I've been very consistent. I think it should be left in public hands." I think the people of Ontario continually are confused by the flip-flopping of the party which the member opposite represents.

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