Letter to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien re: Canada-U.S. Energy Task Force CNW

Kuumad uudised | 25 Aug 2003 | EWR

TORONTO, Aug. 25 /CNW/ -

August 25, 2003

The Right Honourable Jean Chrétien
Prime Minister of Canada
Office of the Prime Minister
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A2

Dear Prime Minister:

I wish to bring to your personal attention the concerns I have with the
make-up of the Canada-U.S. Energy Task Force, which I have already raised with
Minister Dhaliwal.
It is my view that, if this Task Force is to do its job effectively, the
Government of Ontario must join the Government of Canada as an equal partner
on the Task Force. As you know, Ontario has no representation on the Task
Force as currently designed.
While U.S. federal authorities may be able to properly represent American
perspectives on the Task Force, there are significant differences between
Canada and the United States in terms of the ownership, management and
regulation of electricity resources. Ontario owns most of the generation and
transmission within the Canadian territory affected by the recent outage.
Ontario legislation regulates the electricity market in the same area, and
Ontario was the only Canadian jurisdiction affected by the blackout.
These significant differences point to the need for direct participation
by the Province of Ontario in this important process. I urge you to change the
Canadian composition of the Task Force and allocate two of the four positions
to Ontario representatives. Without this change in the Task Force composition,
Canadian interests and viewpoints -- which in this case mostly affect Ontario
-- cannot be adequately represented in the Task Force's deliberations and
directions.
Even the composition of Working Groups that will support the efforts of
the Canada-U.S. Energy Task Force does not adequately provide for Ontario's
input or protect Ontario's interests. In the circumstances, it is unacceptable
that Ontario is to receive the same representation as each of the eight
affected U.S. states.
In addition to being one of the most severely affected jurisdictions,
Ontario has more than three times as much nuclear capacity per capita as the
affected jurisdictions in the U.S. If the Working Groups on Nuclear Power and
the Electric System were structured properly, Ontario would have the same
number of representatives as the U.S.
Despite my reservations about the extent of Ontario's role in the Working
Groups, I am identifying the three eminent individuals who will represent
Ontario on the three Working Groups.

They are:

For the Energy Working Group on Security, Dr. James Young, Commissioner
of Public Security, Ontario Ministry of Public Safety and Security, will
represent Ontario. Dr. Young has held prominent positions responding to
numerous national and international emergency situations.
For the Energy Working Group on the Electric System, Ontario's
representative is Mr. David McFadden, Q.C., of Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP.
Mr. McFadden served as Chair of the Toronto Board of Trade's Task Force on the
Electricity Industry from 1990 to 1999 and served as the founding President of
the Canada-U.S. Business Association.
I am also appointing Mr. Duncan Hawthorne to the Energy Working Group on
Nuclear Power. Mr. Hawthorne is the Chief Executive Officer of Bruce Power,
and has more than 25 years of experience in the power engineering business.
The changes I have requested in the composition of both the Task Force
and the Working Groups are essential to bring Ontario's full expertise to bear
on the challenge of getting to the bottom of what happened and preventing it
from happening again.
Mr. Prime Minister, I request your personal involvement in this issue and
I look forward to an early reply.

Yours sincerely,

Original signed by

Ernie Eves, MPP
Premier

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