Strong proposes overhauling Ontario Hydro

Ontario Hydro Chairman Maurice Strong, who recently announced a major overhaul of the provincial utility, will speak at the April 29 luncheon of the Toronto branch of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum.

Ontario Hydro has proposed reducing its workforce by 4,500 (workers would be asked to retire or quit), as well as cutting another $10 billion in capital spending during the next 10 years. (Hydro, the largest Crown corporation in the country, recently chopped $10 billion from its capital budget).

One of the two Bruce nuclear power stations (the A complex), on the shores of Lake Huron, will be phased out rather than modified.

Also, Strong wants a freeze on hydro rates for 1994, and possibly longer. The past three years have seen prices rise by about 30%.

The proposals have been welcomed by the Association of Major Power Consumers of Ontario, whose members buy electricity worth $900 million annually. Hydro’s largest corporate customer is Falconbridge, which has major mining operations in Sudbury and Timmins. The company is reviewing plans to build its own power plant to serve the Kidd Creek complex, at Timmins. (The plant was intended to reduce electricity costs.)

“We’re pleased with what has happened,” a Falconbridge spokesman said. “The rate freeze is what we were looking for.” The spokesman added that it is too early to determine how the cuts will affect the company’s plans to build its own cogeneration plant.

Meanwhile, Strong has been named chairman of the Earth Council, an independent global organization that reports on how governments and other groups are implementing the wide-ranging accords adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro last June.

Strong organized the Rio summit, known formally as the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development.