What Caused Barrhaven Power Woes? HILL
I have received a follow-up from Hydro Ottawa regarding recent outages.
The prolonged outage (multiple hours) was from the aftermath of recent strong winds, as a tree fell on a key power line, disconnecting the power grid.
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This newsletter excerpt from Barrhaven West Councillor David Hill is courtesy of the city-wide community group Your Applewood Acres (And Beyond) Neighbours
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The shorter outages (of an hour or less) of late were caused by defective infrastructure, and some were caused by tree contact with the lines, resulting in brief interruptions – as the system is designed to quickly protect equipment.
So, what is Hydro Ottawa doing?
Next year, much of Barrhaven’s hydro infrastructure will be undergoing inspection and testing to proactively identify any potential issues or faults. Hydro Ottawa will also continue to manage vegetation near Hydro infrastructure to reduce outages caused by tree contact.
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I wonder if Mr Hill considered that since this is Mark Carney’s home riding (although I could be mistaken) that maybe DumbOld Trumpf had his DOGE buddies messin’ with the infrastructure,
So let me get this straight. The city has taken 250 million dollars from Hydro Ottawa since 2010 as dividends. They are also planning a 47% increase in distribution fees as part of the proposal to the Ontario electrical board. This is over several years but still this is a huge increase. It’s pretty apparent that the increases at hydro Ottawa are needed to improve the distribution system and infrastructure but how much of that money is being then gifted to the city as further dividends? It appears the city is starving hydro Ottawa of funding it needs to improve the infrastructure and using that money as a de facto property tax increase through the back door
From the Ottawa Hydro 2024 AGM report to council : As the owner of Hydro Ottawa the city dividend policy dictates that Hydro Ottawa will pay an annual dividend, which is the greater of 60% of its net income or $14 million.
In accordance with the Council-approved dividend policy, Hydro Ottawa will deliver a dividend of $20 million to the City of Ottawa in 2024 (based on 2023 results), bringing cumulative dividends paid to $369 million since 2005.
Since the hydro dividend amount was determined by city council and funds municipal services, the 60% figure seems excessivley high and as C states it could be seen as a backdoor tax increase.