Word: hydros
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...third of Canada's population; one-half of Canada's industry. Almost every known mineral except coal lies beneath Ontario's geologically ancient hills. And that fact has given rise to the greatest public power enterprise in the capitalist world-the Ontario Hydro-Electric Power Commission. Last week "Hydro" found itself in the thick of a furious politico-economic fight which stirred the whole Dominion...
...July 2, et seq.). And like any good New Dealer the cocky, noisy Premier insisted on making an issue of Power. That was not so easy for Mr. Hepburn as it was for President Roosevelt: almost all of Ontario's power business is already in the hands of Hydro and Hydro is an official appendage of the Provincial Government. Furthermore, no less a private U. S. powerman than . Chairman Floyd Leslie Carlisle of Consolidated Gas Co. of New York and of Niagara Hudson Power Corp. once described Hydro as "the best managed and operated government enterprise in the world...
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...