Opening keynote

In his opening address, the former premier of Ontario summarized the background of the Macdonald Committee which was appointed by his government after it became increasingly apparent that the infrastructure of Hydro Ontario was far bigger than the province and the economy could afford, and that the service that had once given Ontario tremendous competitive advantage, in the form of relatively cheap electric power, had become unsustainable in an era of economic downturn and zero inflation. He stated that the debate about Hydro is part of a broader issue, and it is no longer possible to manage our electricity system as if we were a self-enclosed universe. He predicted that the North American electricity grid will become increasingly interdependent, and that Hydro will have to develop competitive price structures, both to hold its domestic market share and to compete for export sales. He outlined the most pressing issues for Hydro as being debt reduction, while pursuing internal changes to make the organization more efficient. Organizational changes such as the creation of Ontario Hydro International, Ontario Hydro Research, separation of generation operations from the grid, and establishment of separate price and efficiency targets for the autonomous organizations within the utility family, were moves in the right direction. Equally important is to make sure that however Hydro might develop in the future, it is going to be fair to customers, and that the billions of dollars invested in Hydro by Ontario taxpayers over the years, are safeguarded