I wonder if Doug Ford could be convinced to prevent the amalgamation of the two Ontario gas utilities? I won’t claim to be an expert, but I’ve been following MAADs and I’m surprised Board Staff and many of the intervenors endorse the almalgation just based on the two utilities saying they can save millions of dollars with no proof or detailed plans. If anyone has the ear of someone with influence, Doug Ford should be made aware that he can stop this whole scheme and appear a hero to the public by keeping jobs in Ontario, keeping Ontario’s rural gas distributor headquartered in Chatham, and keeping Ontario rate payer money from flowing to evil Enbridge in Alberta. Also, he should fire the entire Ontario Energy Board and appoint a new one while he’s at it.
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I really don’t think there’s any proof customers will save much... particularly in the 10 year timeline. The story told to the OEB is that most of the projected savings will come from efficiencies from combining systems. To that I would just say... when is the last time a big IT project finished on time and on budget? And how often has centralizing functions worked out well? There will be savings eventually but I doubt it will work out anywhere close to what they expected, unless they start cutting jobs like crazy... which will just end with things literally and figuratively blowing up. And even if they do get the savings they projected, it’s not a huge savings for residential customers. A few bucks a year... wow. Considering service will probably be effected negatively, I think most Ontarians would rather keep things as they are. I mean, if customers had to deal with internal services like the outscourced AP and IT helpdesk they would be outside with pitchforks by now, so I don’t even want to think about what is going to happen with the customer-facing services.
The OEB is a designated regulatory authority by the government however they have great autonomy. Unlike Trudeau and the NEB, the provincial government has little or no authority to stop an OEB decision. As such Doug Ford will not have any ability to change the decision and quite frankly I highly doubt it would be of any interest to him. Union gas was actually headquartered in Houston, so funds eventually flowed to the US. Enbridge is headquarter in Alberta. Yes not Ontario, but still within Canada. So given all this Doug would not even have it on his radar, nor should he. Many other things for him to dedicate his efforts on that will improve things for residents of Ontario. Enbridge workers are a small insignificant percentage of people compare to other sectors or companies.
Wait a sec, will prices go down for the consumer? I would think yes if operations are consolidated. People will find jobs in other areas, no worries there.
Horrible company.
Let the cuts begin.