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VAC uw'sm.II 4263 CARdLL VCA j Ald VEARLRCAL the supposed rights as to the develop-- ment of power and <he municipalities of this Province organized in protest sion was being reorganized. "Scnator Meighen--not then Sena-- tor; his name was in the public mind; he had not yet been appointed--to him, I have been told, a message by a mutual friend was sent: 'Don't go upon that Hydro Power Commission, or they will get you.' Now, who the mysterious 'they' were I do not know. But I may point out that this Hydro attack was just being made at that time. Mr. Meighen was a man of outstanding ability, The Commission was being reorganized. And that was the message that I am told was gnt Significant mention was made of the '"Doherty luncheon" in 1932, at which the host was one who was represented by his friend, associated with him at the luncheon, as being employed as a lobbyist by United States power in-- terests. Bequence of Events. to him, and the man who told me would be believed by every man sit-- ting in this room today. I don't know whether it had any significance or not, but I have been told that pre-- vious to that atack being initiated in this House three years ago, Mr. Sifton was at different times in communi-- cation with those who were making the attacks. And, whether it is of any special slfimcance. you will re-- member this: «hat back in 1928, before these contracts were made for npnower, there was an application before the House at Ottawa for the renewal of the Georgian Bay charter, in which Choosing a time in Legislature busi-- noess procedure when he deemed his utterances would be received as non-- political, the Hydro Chairman revealed a growth in Hydro reseorves to $69,000,-- 000, an increase in reserves for munici-- palitiecs to $60,000,000, and a total capital investment by Hydro and the municipalities of $400,000,000 as at the end of 1933. "Now I bolieve that those interests denied it, but I say no adequate ex-- planation has ever been made of the strange proposals that were made at that luncheon, and I just want to direct your thought--and keep the se-- quence of events. I have said this attack on Hydro was initiated in this House in March of 1931. These events all preceded any exposure in regard to Beauharnois developments at Ot-- tawa, but just previous, in the first of June, 1931, the Hydro Power Commis-- R. Cooke, Chairman of the Ontario Hydro--~--Eleciric Power Commission, startled the Ontario Legislature yes-- terday with thc declaration that Rigat Hon. Arthur Meighen, one--time Prime Minister of Canada, and now Leader of the Senate, as well as Hydro Com-- missioner, had been warned: "Don't go upon that Hydro Power Com:mis-- sion, or they will get you." ASSA!ILS POWER CRITICS Deprecaiing 'anti--Hydro propagan-- da," the modern aspects of which h likened to the written and verbal as-- saults upon publicly owned power in-- spired by the National Electric Asso-- clation of the United States, Hon. J. MEIGCHEN WARNED NOT TO SERVE HYDRO CGHAIRMAN AL LEGES Annual Report of Hydro System Is Presented to Legislature Hon. J. R. Cooke Alludes to Mysterious Message From Friend it." the view that he had Mr. Cooke believed that "similar at-- tacks" against Hydro have continued up to the present time, and read from recent publications to prove his point. He granted that, "it is quite poscible that in some instances the injurious propaganda still being issued against the Hydro undertaking is not spon:-- sored or paid for by private power in-- terests, but results either from a reck-- less disregard for the welfare of On-- tario citizens on the part of irrespon-- sibles, or, conceivably, from prejudice that closes the eyes of otherwise well-- meaning persons to obvious and un-- deniable facts" Nevertheless, the Commission was aware that an'anti-- Hydro organization, which in the past bad spent much money in its fight, was still operating, although under another name. The Chairman warmly defended Hydro's rural service, remarking the advances made within the ten years on which critics were concentrating. In that time line--mileage had in-- creased from 605 to 9,000, and cus-- tomers from 7,700 to 62,000. _ _ _ been extremely patient under three iears of criticisms based upon what e insisted was either ignorance or misinformation on the part of his critics, he demandsd to be told how any orc«anization could present to the public <he successful balance sheet that Hydro today was presenting in its annual reports if it had not had honest and efficient management. He failed to understand. he said, how public men could choose to be associ-- ated with the assailants of an organi-- zation which was saving scores of millions of dollars annually to Ontario citizens. Just once he mentioned the name of Ontario Liberal Leader Mitchell F Hepburn, when he accused that gen-- tleman of submitting _ anti--Hydro statements, not only as variance with the facts, but at variance with each other. He looked through his papers for the purpose 'of displaying what he alleged to be one glaring example of Hydro misrepresentation, but failed to find i:, and rushed through the re-- mainder of a1 hour and a half's speech, to conclude before 6 o'clock. Similar Attacks Alleged. The Hydro chieftain chose the ten--year period since the advent to power of Hon. G. Howard Ferguson upon which to base statistical con-- trasts, For it was that decade, he said, concerning which principal criticisms were being made. And his statistical presentation showed that over 70 per cent. of Hydro's $129,-- 000,000 of reserves, as between Pro-- vincial and municipal bodies,> had been built up. He spent somse time in an effort to refute the contentions of the critics who opposed the purchase by Hydro of power from private cor-- porations, declaring at the conclu-- sion of his power review: "The total commitments you have for all time to come is but 280,000 horsepower, and the day is not far distant when these persons will realize the wisdom and vision of those who made these power contracts." sA . His power review showed the east-- ern and northern systems bereft of reserve power, and only the Niagara with an unutilized store for new in-- dustries, Did the anti--power--pur-- chase spokesmen, he asked, desire to have Ontario industry electrically ra-- tioned, so that a five--year notice of industrial power necessitiee would be required before power could be sup-- m the highly industrialized Niagara system. The future had been esti-- mated on power from the St. Lawrence development, "But can any one'guar-- antee in the face of present condi-- tions that you'll get it?" & & % He noted recent statements from Opposition sources to the effecet that Hydro's power reserves were large be-- yond reason. But neither the Eastern Ontario nor the Georgian Bay sys-- tems had any power to spare, and the aole reserve of 280.000 horsepower was Closing, he said: "The day is not far distant when the people of this Province will realize the vision and wisdom of those who made the Hydro March Report Tabled. Mr. Cooke tabled in the House the Commission's report for the year just closed. The report stated that "load conditions and finances have mater-- ially improved during the latter part of 1933. "The load supplied to the municipal-- ities reached the lowest point since 1929 in Fcbruary of 1933, and, further, the loss of large loads due to the cur-- tailment of operations in the electro-- chemical and metallurgical industry materially affected the revenue of the Commission during the year. The loss of load was regained during the sum-- mer, and in the fall showed an im-- provement of the order of 10 per cent. over the previous year, with a gain in electrical energy of from 6 1--2 to 25 per cent.. the latter figure including secondary power,. Additional Loads for New Uses. "The Commission, in view of such circumstances, and the continued de-- pression in industry, has been actively engaged in securing additional loads by new uses, and inaugurating a cam-- paign for the use of electrical energy for the heating of water for domestic purposes, as also in the supply of power for the gensration of steam for process purposes. This will result in an increase of revenue to the system by over $1,500,000 per annum, which, however, could not be realized in suf-- ficient time to affect the revenues of 1933. "On some systems, not only was all of the commercial peak capacity utilized during the peak load, but even a portion of the minimum re-- serve for operating contingencies was being employed to earn a revenue. On all systems the commercially avail-- able peak capacity was utilized with the exception of about 175,000 horse-- power. "The revenue of the Commission derivable from the municipal utilities operating under cost contracts and from other customers with whom--on behal? of the municipalitie--the Commission has special contracts, all within the Niagara, Goorgian Bay, | Rastern Ontario and Thunder Bay | Systems, -- aggregates $26,620,463.77, | which amount is less than the amount |received during the year 1932 by $1,-- ;435.431.69. which is due to the re-- | duction in the average load taken by the municipalities of 20,313 horse-- !power and for customers' contracts | 57,521 horsepower. The total reduc-- tion of all customers and of mu-- | nicipalities amounted to 77,834 horse-- | power, which will account for an | average reduction in revenue at a | rate of $25 per horsepower of ap-- . proximately $2,000,000, Financial Reserve Policy. "During Dccember. the Commission supplied on all syst:ms the largest load in its history to the municipal-- ities arnd its customors. For all sys-- tems the electrical capacity at the end of the year was 1,893,000 horse-- power, capable of supplying commer-- cially continuous service for & peak load of 1.704,000 horsepower. The sum of the actual system peak loads of all systems was 1,521,4172 horse-- power, which includes the sale of sec-- ondary power and coincident peak of 1,514,.040 horsepower. hi\ ge _ "The firm power for which the Commission was under contract to maintain capacity available was 1,.-- 295,000 horsepower, and the special reserve power essential for the re-- sumption of industrial operations and re--employment in Hydro municipali-- ties was 410,000 horsepower. "The Commission's financial re-- serve policy followed over a period of several years has been especially bene-- ficial, and, as in the case of the year 1932, extra funds set aside for con-- tingencies and other purposes in the years 1926--31 have assisted mkcarr{-. ing the additional expense brougnt about by the present provision of power reserves by the grawing upon these reserves for the stabm'zlng of the cost per h nicipalities. It