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Mr. Roebuck spoke for an hour and a half in the dispassionately cold style so characteristic of him. Confining his complete attention to power affairs, and, indirectly, to a strong defense of not only his own record as Hydro Commissioner, bu! that of former Chairman Lyon as well, he charged that the Govern-- ment had completely reversed its election--campaign policy of "Back to Niagara," and by virtue of the new contracts (that were not required) | had committed Ontario to an added | cost of $7,0((0) per day--in his judg-- ment "a pure gift to the power -- barons." OVERBUYING SEEN Unqualified disapproval of the Hepburn Government's proposal to export power to the United States, on the ground that, apart from the saving to Hydro, export was not "in furtherance of this country's in-- dustrial development," was voiced in the Legislature yesterday by Arthur W. Roebuck, Toronto--Beli-- woods. mCf o P t emcome + o y o me ~ MMener J There was clearly no need fOE es | any immediate increase in Ontario's in || bower supply, at the time of the ne-- MOVO "Of RQSO'O Plam lgotiatimz of the last contracts, said k K K O% # g* [ n ow..i & sHume In his first considered public ut-- terance on the present power situa-- tion since the negotiating of new agreements with the Quebec com-- panies, Mr. Roebuck accused the Queen's Park Administration, of which he once was a member, of establishing this Province as sales agent for the "power barons," and of pleading a financial disaster to Hydro--"which it has voluntarily accepted"--as a reason for changing the national power policy of Can-- ada. Bees Advantage Sacrificed. Power Export Proposal Sacrificing Industry, Says Roebuck None could possibly deny, sub-- mitted Mr. Roebuck, that the Gov-- ernment had purchased greater 1 quantities of power than Hydro could use. The application for ex-- port privileges, as made to Ottawa, . was, he said, a plain admission of . the fact. "And it is quite obvious," . he warned, "that once the privilege . of marketing power abroad is con-- . ceded, it will never again be sold . here for less than it will commana there, and the advantage which in-' dustry is now supposed to enjoy in | cheap and abundant power will' have been sacrificed for the en-- richment of a few wealthy promot-- ers and owners. Whether the fi-- . nancial condition of Ontario's| Hydro, as a result of these newl purchase agreements, is sumciently' desperate to warrant the sacrifice ' of national interests is for the Ot-- tawa Government to decide, in the face of political pressure from On-- tario and a private lobby from Que-- bec." HYDRO DEAL CALLED GIFT FOR BARONS Admission of Excess, M.L.A. Charges Says Hogg Sympathetic. The present Hydro Chairman, Dr. T. H. Hogg, had always been sympa-- thetic to the Quebec companies, even to the point of holding a re-- tainer from Beauharnois while carrying out his engineering duties with the Commission, Mr. Roebuck further alleged. In a recent public address, declared Mr. Roebuck, Dr. Hogg had said that the former Hydro Commissioners had to accept full responsibility for the conclu-- slons they had reached while in office. gotiating of the last contracts, said Mr. Roebuck. And yet, with ample power at hand, and notwithstanding the utter failure of engineers' esti« mates in the past, and the pessimis-- tic forecast by the Premier of an-- other near--at--hand disastrous de-- pression, the Government and Hydro had about--turned on public owner-- ship, and had again dealt lavishly with the Quebec interests. Points to Mounting Cost. '"We paid last year $3,592,000 for: all the power that we needed, gen-- erously supplied," said Mr. Roe-! buck. "In 1944 we will pay $8,825,000, | to be paid whether we need or do not need the power. With all due regard to the not too disingenuous guesses of interested technical ad-- visers, I ask the business men ot' this assembly to stop and think." | Mr. Roebuck took another rap at "the pro--power company press" for its persistent effort to justify the new power purchases by the recent ice jam at Niagara. "Had Dr. Hogg demonstrated his foresight," he gibed, "by placing shutters on the wndows of the generating plant below the cataract, he might now perhaps be more highly regarded as a prophet. The loose ice which flowed into the building has re-- duced the capacity of the Commis-- slon--owned plants temporarily by 175,000 horsepower." The former Commission, he ar-- gued, would have met the "tem-- porary emergency'" without the least embarrassment. And however spectacular may have been the fall of the Honeymoon Bridge, no tem-- porary emergency such as an ice jam, submitted Mr. Roebuck, could afford any justification for the pur-- chase of hydraulically generated, transmitted stand--by power at a cost of $25 per h.p. (Beauharnois) when steam plants could be rea-- sonably built at strategic locations to idle at less than $6 per horse-- power. Draws Government Fire. '"Well, my answer to Dr. Hogg and the sneers of the pro--power com-- pany press," said Mr. Rocebuck, "is a saving of $14,000,000 in public money in two years' time, or over $700,000 per hour for all the time that I have occupied on this ques-- tion in this House during the past three years." Not until near the close of his address did Mr. Roebuck's persis-- tent prodding of the Government draw fire from the front benches Then, on several occasions, the Pre-- mier and Provincial Secretary Nix-- on clashed briefly but belligerently with him, bringing the House and| the crowded galleries up on edge. One of the sizzling incidents de-- veloped when Mr. Roebuck, during a discussion of the court's attitude toward the contracts legislation situation, was asked by Mr. Hep-- burn if the Judges of the Ontario Supreme Court, in ruling that the original contracts were valid, had| done so "to oblige the power barons." T l "I might recall to the honorable the Premier," retorted Mr. Roebuck, "many things he said about these same Judges." _ _ 2 w"l."t;e-égr?s'c;}vauve benchers pound-- ed their desks, and Opposition Lead-- er Macaulay shouted, "Quid pro quo." March to "'That's what you think," Mr. Hep-- burn declared. A further brush occurred--a two minutes' skirmish which brought the white to the faces of Mr. Hepburn and Mr. Nixon--when the last-- named asked Mr. Rocbuck to define | the extent _of the "temporary "Got Good Return." Later, Mr. Hepburn reminded Mr. Roebuck that he and Lewis Duncan had given the Government a lot of advice on the power question. "And you got a good return for your money," Mr. Roebuck flared. emergency" which had occurred at Niagara. "What do you mean, dawdle?" de-- manded the Premier, jumping to his feet. "I am informed that it will take three months to repair the damage to that plant." In criticizing Dr. Hogg, the for-- mer Aitorney--General recalled that in a recent speech before the Mu-- nicipal Electric Association the new Hydro Chairman took occasion to dissociate himself from the rec-- ord of the former Commission and to repudiate its policies. "Oh, as long as the engineers want to dawdle over their work there," Mr. Roebuck said. "He says that we, the former members of the Commission, must accept full responsibility for the conclusions we reached," said Mr. Roebuck. "Let me say on behalf of Mr. Lyon and myself that we are nothing loath to do so. That Dr. Hogg's sympathies were with the power companies throughout was never any secret to us. He ap-- proved the estimates of anticipated power growth upon which the orig-- inal contracts of 1929 were based. He enjoyed a retainer from the Beauharnois Company while hold-- ing office with the Hydro, and it "My answer to Dr. Hogg and the sneers of the pro--power company press is a saving of $14,000,000 in public money in two years' time, or over $700,000 per hour for all the time that I have occupied on this question in this House during the past three years. "In 1937 we were obligated under the old contracts to a purchase of 731,000 horsepower, and we actually received and used 180,000 horse-- power, and during the year we pur-- chased a further 117,000 horsepower peak capacity from the Ottawa Val-- ley Company against a probable in-- crease in this winter's demand, thus leaving intact the 120,000 horse-- pawer which we held in re-- serve at the Gatineau. We had is quite obvious snould he at any time leave Hydro it would be to the private interests he would neces-- sarily losk for future employment '"In 1937 we would have paid $10,« 965,000. What we actually paid was approximately $3,592,000, a saving of $7,372,000. "Let me assure Dr. Hogg that Mr. Lyon and I have never shirked responsibility of any kind, and least of all responsibility for the administrative record of Hydro for the past three and one--half years, but may I point out to him that responsibility and credit go hand in hand. I acquit him 6of the one as completely as I do of the other. Depleted Reserve to Pay. "But in 1935 this Legislature, at our instance, passed an act in can-- cellation of these iniquitous con-- tracts, and we actually paid for all the power we required, together with 160,000 horsepower held in re-- serve, the sum of $2,823,906, a sav-- ing of $6,685.583. "When we took office we found the Niagara System tied for many years to ruinous power--purchase contracts with Quebec companies. In 1935 we actually paid these Que-- bee companies the sum of $7,936,-- 893, and to do so we depleted our contingency reserve by $2,870,870. In 1936 we would have been obli-- gated to a payment of $9,517,500, and had we made such a payment we would have depleted this re-- serve by a further $3,500,000.