Word: hydros
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Nevertheless, if there was dirt to dig from Hydro's past, "Mitch" Hepburn could find it. And he did, chiefly in connection with long-term contracts which Hydro made with four big private power companies in the neighboring Province of Quebec. Apparently convinced that the amazing growth in power sales promoted by Hydro's low rates in the booming 1920-5 would continue indefinitely, Hydro's former Conservative management signed up for huge blocks of power on a rising scale of delivery for years to come. After Depression struck Ontario, Hydro, with its own plant capacity...
...meantime, however, the private companies sold millions in bonds on the basis of the Hydro contracts, regarded by investors as almost a direct obligation of the Province. The money was sunk in tremendous hydro-electric developments up & down the rivers of Quebec. Last week, after weeks of preliminary rumblings, Premier Hepburn uprose in the Ontario Parliament in Toronto and begged leave to introduce a bill repudiating the contracts one & all as "illegal, void and unenforceable." While there appeared to be some question whether Hydro had not exceeded its authority, the Premier took no chance with the courts: his bill included...
Ontario's cherished low power rates were Premier Hepburn's excuse for tearing up Hydro's contracts. If Hydro lived up to them, it would have to boost rates to carry the costs of the power it cannot sell. Since someone must hold the bag and there was no visible method of passing it to the opposition, the Premier decided that it should be held by the securities holders of the private companies...
...harnois Light, Heat & Power; Ottawa Valley Power; Maclaren-Quobec Power; Gatineau Power-have $172,000,000 of bonds in the hands of U. S., .Canadian and British investors. Typical is Gatineau, nearly one-half of whose annual revenue of around $9,000,000 is derived from its contracts with Hydro. In Gatineau's case, however, the Premier proposed to make a partial exemption for practical operating reasons: Hydro might buy Gatineau current at present rates "as it deems advisable...
...wholesale producer of electric energy is Hydro. It sells to a few big private users but its most important function is supplying power, service and advice to some 700 Ontario towns & cities at cost. The municipalities in turn sell power to ultimate consumers over their own local distributing system, also at cost. Founded in 1906 by Act of Parliament, Hydro is financed by the Provincial Government but not subsidized except in rural electri-fication-a minor item. Its bonds are being amortized, so that eventually the municipalities will, in effect, own all Hydro's great plants and transmission lines...