Hydro One in contempt of the legislature, Ontario PCs insist

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Ontario's Progressive Conservative opposition is calling for Hydro One officials to be found in contempt of the legislature for allegedly trying to cover up problems with the company's billing system, which saw 100,000 customers receive faulty bills.

PC House Leader Steve Clark on Tuesday said his privileges as a member of the legislature were breached and urged Speaker Dave Levac to order a further investigation into the matter.

"The statements by Hydro One were an attempt to mislead the House," Mr. Clark said.

Government House Leader Yasir Naqvi said there is no evidence anyone from Hydro One made false statements to the legislature, and asked Mr. Levac to dismiss Mr. Clark's request.

Mr. Levac reserved his decision.

The accusations of Hydro One dishonesty stem from a report Monday by Ombudsman André Marin. In the report, Mr. Marin said Hydro One officials lied to him and to Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli's office about the billing problems.

In one instance, Mr. Marin said, Mr. Chiarelli's chief of staff asked Hydro One how many customers were affected by the billing problems. Hydro One officials told him 22,000, when the number was in fact 100,000.

Hydro One CEO Carmine Marcello denied anyone at his organization had lied. He said there was confusion over the number of people affected by the problems because the number fluctuated over time.

If Mr. Levac rules in favour of Mr. Clark, the legislature can choose to have a committee investigate the matter further and demand an apology from Hydro One.

It is also an offence to lie to the Ombudsman, but Mr. Marin said he decided not to pursue charges because it would be too time-consuming.

"We would have to build a new court house, because there were a lot of people that we would have to charge," he said, later describing Hydro One as "rotting from the inside out."

Mr. Marin's report found that a new computer system at Hydro One repeatedly messed up bills.

In one case, a Timmins senior citizen had $10,000 improperly pulled from his bank account by Hydro One without warning. In another instance, a ski resort erroneously received a $37-million bill.

The Ombudsman said Hydro One failed to properly deal with these problems, and it took some customers more than a year of fighting to get their bills fixed.

In one case, Mr. Marin said, an Ottawa man who was billed $11,000 for five years' worth of electricity he had already paid for had to deal with 40 different people at Hydro One – and eventually call in Mr. Marin for help – before they issued the correct bill.