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External solutions "fetish"
at bottom of Pickering problems, For Immediate Release (August 28, 2003) - If governments of the 1990s hadn't attacked Ontario Hydro's ability to carry out capital projects, re-starting Pickering's four laid-up reactors would have gone more smoothly, says a union representing Ontario Power Generation's professional employees. The President of the Society of Energy Professionals, Andrew Müller, made the statement to the provincial government's Pickering A Review Panel, in a meeting held today. The Panel, headed by former federal energy minister Jake Epp, is looking into a series of delays and cost over-runs in OPG's project to rehabilitate the four reactors shut down at its Pickering site in 1997. Fortunately, says Müller, there are signs that OPG's upper management has learned the lessons needed to allow completion of the project. This is a relief, he says, because the critical shortage of generation in Ontario, coupled with Canada's Kyoto commitments, make successful completion of the project essential. Bob Rae's NDP government of the early 1990s, said Müller, forced Ontario Hydro to disband its construction branch, so when it came time to refurbish Pickering A, OPG didn't have in place the division that would ordinarily do such work. The current government, he added, has filled OPG's top echelons with officials with a "fetish" for private solutions. This fetish, he said, led to OPG entering into an "alliance" with a consortium of private companies that left OPG with little control over the project. For instance, the decision to begin work before the engineering plans were ready, he said, was made over the heads of OPG's project managers. OPG CEO Ronald Osborne has since referred to that "alliance" as a "three-headed monster." The rush to complete the project, said Müller, came about when the "government decided to open the electricity market [at a time when] Ontario no longer had enough surplus generation capacity to supply the demand of a hot summer day." The Society believes, he said, that "the very individuals who were brought in to OPG to correct OPG's "deficiencies"-as well as the people responsible for bringing them in-completely underestimated the complexity of what was being undertaken.... We believe that much of the responsibility for the Pickering A debacle rests squarely on the shoulders of OPG's sole shareholder-the Provincial Government." Initially the Society had agreed to the contracting out of work on Pickering A that would otherwise have been covered by the Society's collective agreement. However, as the project went on much longer than OPG had planned for, the "reliance on contractors, in the Society's view, got completely out of control." The Society has since entered into a new agreement, he said, which involves the Society in "business planning and staff succession," and will result in the hiring of more regular staff. The Society of Energy Professionals represents 6,000 professional employees in the electricity industry in Ontario. Employees covered by Society agreements include engineers, research scientists, supervisors, finances specialists, and many others. -30- for further information, or to receive a copy of the brief presented to the Panel, please phone Brian Robinson at (416) 716-6438, or Andrew Müller at (416) 317-2392. Sponsor: Society of Energy Professionals
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