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i P WeR 1M / h sc m iR i se s 3 "'----w r Rb\'ua. 2¢ !Wfl «* "'1 _ Behing reason for deficit lay & -- cost of power now so high that steam * plants had become potential and -- alarming competitors. The Attorney--Gzneral cited author-- * ities who estimated that in Toronto power generated by steam produced * by imported coal would cost $24 per horsepower. To Hydro the equivalent * cost of production is $32.31. "The explanation," said the Attor-- ney--General, "liss in the sacrifice of the systems to those interested in the $326,326,006 - | "Worked out from the begin-- _| ning to the conclusion of their i contracts, these companies are . | entitled to take from the people | l of the Niagara district a gross | | in payments of $32%6,32%6,006.14, *, | | or $40,000,000 more than the | present entire investment in the Commission's whole sys-- tem "--Mr. Roebuck on Hydro \ Private Power Contracts. financial operations of the power barons of Quebec." Contracts for virtually unused power cost nearly five and a half millions in 1934, and "this expenditure was un-- necessary," "In 1937," said Mr. Roebuck, "all the power is contracted for all the \time, and the grand total which these loompa.mes are entitled to take from the power users or taxpayers of On-- tario for power for which there is no present and little prospective use is the sum of $9,525,000 per year for thirty years." 4 \| The gross payments to the Quebec f companies, he said, would be 8326.-' 326,006, on account of the contracts. ' The Attorney--General would not overrate the prospects of increased consumption. There were few new municipalities to add to the Niagara Bystem. There were few people in * the municipalities served who did not have electric light in their house. Small Growth Expected. There had been some increase in rural districts, he said, but the rea-- sonably expected growth would be t comparatively small in a discussion of losses of millions of dollars. "If the conditions in the next three years go not improve in the matter of power sales," he said, "the revenue will be approximately $20,000,000 for the Niagara System. In 1938 we are obligated to pay $9,525,000 for the power of these three companies, or one--half of our entire revenue." "The early vision of Hydro," Mr, Roebuck said, "had been power at eost. Wouls that the Henry and Ferguson Go--ernments had remained true to that vision." Praise for Stewart Lyon. There were good words for the Com--| mission Chairman of Canada's third f largest utility. "A man of intense public spirit," Mr. Roebuck said, as he spoke of T. Stewart Lyon, "whose honesty and good intention has carried the ap-- proval of the people of the Province {rom one end to the other." § The Attorney--General directed at-- tention to the major savings already effected under the new Hydro regime. But "nothwithstanding the Commis-- sion's continued efforts to reduce ex-- penses and to promote the sale of power by every possible device, the deficits of the system amounted to * more than three million and a half in a single year." }