Province rejects sale of hydro assets

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Ontario Energy Minister Dwight Duncan appeared to open the door to the possible sale of some assets owned by Ontario Power Generation Inc. in a recent interview.

But the minister's staff hastily slammed the door shut when questioned recently.

If the Liberals were to sell generating stations owned by OPG, they would break a cast-iron election promise.

In an interview with the Star's Queen's Park columnist Ian Urquhart, Duncan reiterated that OPG's big generating plants — its nuclear-power stations and the big hydroelectric stations at Niagara Falls and on the St. Lawrence River — are not for sale.

But Duncan indicated that other plants, such as small hydroelectric stations and the province's fossil fuel plants, could be sold. "We're going to deal with those on a case-by-case basis," he told Urquhart.

No decisions would be made until OPG gets a new chief executive, and a review of the company's mandate is completed, Duncan said.

OPG has been without a permanent chief executive since Duncan fired its senior executives in November 2003. A review of its mandate was supposed to be completed by last fall, but hasn't been delivered.

Public ownership of the hydro system was a high-profile issue in the October 2003 Ontario election.

A policy document published by the Liberals during the campaign promised not to privatize the electricity system.

"We will keep hydro in public hands," it vowed.

The platform statement went on to elaborate: "Under our plan for positive change, we will stop the sell-off of your hydro."

"We will not sell any public generating stations or the transmission grid — period. All public hydro assets will remain in public hands. It's the only way to get the stability we need to create jobs and grow the economy."

In a recent interview, Duncan's press aide Angie Robson said the Liberal policy is unchanged.

"We're committed to keeping the hydroelectric assets in public hands," she said.

She said OPG might develop new hydroelectric sites in Northern Ontario, and could do so in partnership with Indian bands who would then be joint owners of the generating facilities.

"I think when he said `case-by-case' he was thinking partnerships," Robson said.

She also pointed to Duncan's words at a recent news conference. Duncan said the Conservatives had intended "to sell the very assets that we don't think we should be selling — the hydroelectric assets, the so-called heritage assets."

The meaning of "heritage assets" is open to interpretation, however. "Heritage assets" generally refer only to OPG's nuclear plants and its big hydro facilities at Niagara Falls and on the St. Lawrence River — not to all its smaller hydro stations across the province.

Robson also noted the Liberals have promised to shut down Ontario's coal-burning generating plants by 2007. Those properties might be considered for sale once the stations close.