The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

in the interest of their hydro customers: Back to Bowmanville, Newcastle and Orono. The question question becomes "should the Bowmanville, Newcastle, and Orono Veridian hydro customers have to accept a hydro rate from Veridian that includes the cost of an interest payment payment to the Town of Clarington of almost $1 million annually. annually. The answer, of course is'NO". The $1 million taken from the pockets of the Bowmanville, Newcastle, Orono hydro users should go back to these hydro users through a rate decrease which is a very simple matter. An item to consider before marking your ballot. Letter to the Editor V--J Weekly Times Subscriptions $23.36 + $1.64 G.S.T. = $25.00/year . Publications Mail Registration No. 09301 Publishing 50 Issues Annually at the Office of Publication "We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada, through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP), toward our mailing costs" 5310 Main Street, P.O. Box 209, Orono, Ontario LOB 1M0 E-Mail Address: oronotimes@speedline.ca Phone/Fax (905) 983-5301 Publisher/Editor Marg Zwart The Veridian story - - - An Election Issue by Roy Forrester Due to the Harris conservative government's scheme to privatize local hydro systems in what was to lower hydro costs, the opposite is in fact happening in many Ontario municipalities. Unfortunately, the council of the Municipality of Clarington bought into the plan and along with Pickering and Ajax formed an incorporated hydro utility utility company, Veridian. This has already placed hydro users in Bowmanville, Newcastle and Orono in the position of having to pay an increase in their cost of hydro. When Clarington council gave approval to lumping the hydro customers in Bowmanville, Newcastle and Orono Into Veridian, they did so on agreement that Veridian pay to the Municipality of Clarington an interest on the appraised value of the former Clarington Hydro Electric system. Bowmanville, Newcastle and Orono hydro users, the former owners of Clarington Hydro, do not now have the benefit of a not-for-profit system. system. The Municipality of Clarington has already received interest payments from Veridian of $948,000 in September *99 and a further payment of $936,000 in September 2000. Total of $1,884,000, nearly $2 million. This cost, of nearly $2 million, comes entirely out of the pockets of the hydro users in Bowmanville, Newcastle and Orono and means at least a ten percent increase of $80.00 annually for the average residential home. But more increases are on the way for the residents of the three Clarington centres. John Wiersma, president of Veridian has pointed to a more than doubling of the rate of return from 4% to 9.8% as well as an increase in the deliv October 10.2000 Councillors Novak and Mutton-voted the way they I have been following how did, but I wasn't, our regional councillors and Disappointed, yes. Surprised, mayor voted on the Cougs no. It is, after all, silly season, development at the last three What is really scary though, Regional Council meetings. is .that Councillor Novak cur- While the proposed servicing rently chairs Clarington's of this development with Planning Department and communal sewers is a signif- Councillor Mutton chairs leant component of the appli- Finance. To her credit, Mayor cation and therefore cause Harare supported the staff for concern, in so many other recommendation to deny the aspects it is in direct coiitra- Cougs application, but then vention of the principles of again, she is not seeking resound resound and sustainable plan- election. , * ning. There are major land Silly season Is that time use and financial implica- just before an election when tlons for the Region, and some incumbent candidates therefore Clarington. seem to make blatantly self- The region will be spend- serving and Incredibly stupid tag many thousands of otir decisions. Unless enough tax dollars defending their individual citizens contribute official plan policies before to the campaigns of candi- the OMB because three dates at all levels, candidates applicants, including Cougs, will be looking to other want to build "lifestyle" resi- sources to finance their runs dential developments in the for office. Developers will rural areas In conjunction gladly cough up the maxi- with a golf course, serviced mum. $750.00 campaign with communal sewers. , contribution, more so if they I wish I could say that I feel they can get some pay- was surprised that back in short order. If you care about the future of your community and the level of services that are provided for your tax dollars, dollars, please inform yourselves about the issues, your candidates' candidates' election platforms, and in the case of incumbents, incumbents, their voting records on major issues. Find out who contributed to their last election election campaign. Support candidates who propose a community vision and an election platform that stand up to scrutiny. Support their campaigns financially and otherwise. Shortsighted, self-serving political decisions cost us all, and the price we pay may be higher than we ever dreamed. Much has been made of political experience during Clarington's present mayoral campaign. Do we really want to re-elect people who have years of experience making decisions that are not in the public interest? If the decisions decisions Councillors Mutton and Novak made on the Cougs development are the result of their political experience, experience, do we really need more of the same? If their Cougs decisions were simply self-serving, who wants more? If there's some other , explanation Councillors Mutton and Novak care to provide to the readers of this newspaper, please, let's hear it. We should question them closely at all the candidates meetings coming up. We can then find out if they intend to do for Clarington what they wanted to do for Ajax. Yours sincerely, Linda Gasser ery component of hydro from a monthly rate of $14.00 to $28.00. If Clarington council had taken the time to understand the three options available to them and to consider the hydro user within the centres of Bowmanville, Newcastle and Orono the result would have been different. After all the municipality operates arenas, libraries, recreational centres centres without looking for a financial return on their investments. investments. Why not the same for hydro. The Whitby, Scugog, Oshawa option makes sense. Both Whitby and Scugog have incorporated their Hydro utilities and are running them as separate, individual utilities. utilities. F,Rfh utility has their own board of directors. This allows them to move in any direction they wish in the future. They are not bound by any outside entity. Scugog has visions of expanding into the rural area ta the future when the frenzy of today dies down, as it will, in the electrical electrical market. Scugog has a three year service agreement with Whitby that is working well. Both Whitby and Scugog continue to operate at a reasonable reasonable rate of return that allows updating and expansion, even though they must meet the new regulations of the province and accept the loss of hydro development charges. While Veridian talks of rate increases both Whitby and Scugog are holding the line on rates for the next two years. In fact over the past two years Scugog has implemented a one percent and a half percent reduction In their rate. Unlike Veridian, they, Whitby and Scugog, are not about to make application for a rate increase to the Ontario Energy Board. Veridian has already made one application for a rate increase to the Ontario Energy Board which has been denied. Veridian is re-applying, Whitby and Scugog are to be congratulated as they have acted totally in the Interest of their hydro users. They cannot cannot be accused of gouging their residents. It can also be noted that the City of Oshawa has taken no action to amalgamate or sell off. They are operating similar similar as the Whitby and Scugog new incorporated utilities and: pounewtitte toxiMri 9R.. IT VI6SA two... BV TIE TIME