I drove across southern Ontario today. I'm visiting family in the southwest for the weekend and then I'll be in Toronto for research. As I made my way from Ottawa to Listowel, I tuned into numerous local radio stations. I worked in local radio for five years and still find the medium amusing, if a bit frustrating. It may be lacking in intellectual depth, but it's an excellent way to get a good understanding of a community and what is on the minds of the people in it.
Heading east on Highway 7 from Ottawa I tuned into 92.3 "Jack FM" (CJET), from Smiths Falls. Their top news story there was yet another increase in Hydro One customers across the province. This time it will amount to about another $6.00 per month. A Facebook group opposed to Hydro One rate increases was planning to protest outside the Hydro One area office in the town of Perth this afternoon. Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) was also going to participate.
Ontario residents are completely justified in their anger about Hydro One rate increases, and the rate increases from any other electrical utility in Ontario. The rate increases have resulted from a series of bad decisions. The first were during the Mike Harris Conservative government which dismantled Ontario Hydro and the numerous municipal electrical utilities that used to serve urban areas and embarked upon a California-style deregulation policy that led to significant rate increases because separate companies were suddenly engaged in generation, transmission, and distribution activities. Some former municipal utilities merged with others and formed private utilities that offered little in the way of accountability to their former owners/customers. The Harris changes also enabled wind turbine companies and other non-utility sources of generation to more easily set up operations in Ontario. Wind turbines were going up near Ripley in Bruce County and Shelburne in Dufferin County before former Premier Dalton McGuinty and the so-called Green Energy Act. If anything, the Harris changes were the gateway to what McGuinty did. The fact that a Conservative government had a significant role in setting the current Hydro disaster in motion does not give someone like Mr. Hillier much qualification to participate in a demonstration about rate increases. An area office is also the wrong location to stage a demonstration. Rate increases are not decided there. The people who make these decisions do not even work there. The only staff in area offices are line crews, service personnel, and their supervisors. Some locations may have data processing staff working there. There is not even a customer service counter in a Hydro area office anymore. Bills are paid by mail, online, over the phone, or at the bank. If a customer wants to call Hydro One, they have to call a toll-free number and speak to whoever answers at a call centre somewhere in the Greater Toronto Area. Those opposing Hydro rate increases and the planned privatization of the utility being planned by Premier Kathleen Wynne should focus their efforts on other methods.
Further west I switched over to the old fashioned AM dial and CJBQ 800 from Belleville. I have a nostalgic attachment to this station. It was the first one I ever recall hearing as a child in nearby Frankford. Nearly three decades later, I worked there too, doing the weekend morning news shift for a few months. CJBQ was the soundtrack of my parents 1978 Chrysler LeBaron, it was part of my grandmother's kitchen, and it was the noise from the radio on the counter next to the cigarette rolling machine at my wonderful childhood neighbour Mrs. Fraser's house. On today's noon news report, the top story was a convention of mayors and council members from small urban municipalities across Ontario that was taking place in Belleville. The morning's featured guest speaker was Premier Kathleen Wynne. 100 angry members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) showed up too. They're working without a contract and want to know why the government they work for isn't willing to resume negotiations after they broke down six months ago. Ms. Wynne did not speak with the union members but she did tell CJBQ news that "net zero" salary increases were necessary due to the province's financial situation and that her priority is addressing the poor state of Ontario's public infrastructure. After being the friend of public sector labour for 12 years, the Liberals are turning against the people who had a significant influence in seeing they were elected. The OPSEU situation, teacher strikes in Durham, Sudbury, and possibly Peel, and opposition from the public to the privatization of Hydro One threaten to alienate a key part of the support base for the Ontario Liberals. Many of these public sector union members and supporters of public power were the same people who a year ago ensured Ms. Wynne received a majority mandate at the polls when the alternative was a reactionary, anti-labour Conservative option and the traditionally labour-friendly New Democrats were faltering.
By the time I was west of Toronto, the miserable traffic on Highway 401 had made me equally miserable. After repeated traffic reports on 680 News (CFTR-AM) describing all four locations where the highway was at a near standstill across the Toronto region, silence was the best option. The radio stayed off until west of Elmira and CKNX-AM 920 Wingham then provided information I never hear living in the National Capital Region. I like CKNX a lot too. I was a freelance news reporter for that station for two years. I basically made a full-time job out of it and loved every second. Hearing their 5:00pm news and complete summary of that days farm market prices, followed by a nearly 30 year-old song by Merle Haggard was a comforting sign that the trip was nearly over. I never thought I'd be so pleased to hear about hog futures. Local radio certainly reflects the community it serves.
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And, according to a report late today from The Beacon Herald newspaper in Stratford Ontario, the Director of the Avon-Maitland District School Board has granted permission for local teacher Richard Boon to take the time off to accompany his 90 year-old World War II veteran father to The Netherlands to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of that country from the Nazis. Last week, the board had rejected Mr. Boon's application for leave, prompting protest from the surrounding region and across the country. Petitions circulated and local MPP Randy Pettapiece even questioned Premier Wynne about the decision in the Legislative Assembly. Hopefully the board has learned that its initial decision was completely ignorant, showed poor citizenship, and will treat any future issues of this nature with more respect.
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