Carmine Marcello, the President and CEO of Hydro One, is asking City of Woodstock councillors to put their trust in his utility amid an Ombudsman investigation into its billing practices.
The head of Hydro One promises customer service wont be an issue if the City of Woodstock sells its utility to the troubled giant.
Hydro One is being investigated by Ombudsman Andre Marin for thousands of complaints over apparent billing issues.
"Right now, I am keenly focused on fixing those customer service problems. I do have a lot of things to focus on. It would be great if Woodstock Hydro were to look at our deal and decide this was the right deal for them, but ultimately it's their choice," said Carmine Marcello, the President and CEO of Hydro One.
Some customers have complained about not getting billed for months at a time, only to then receive a bill asking for a large sum.
Marcello said his company could provide electricity more efficiently if it owned Woodstock Hydro because of "economies of scale."
"You've got two entities in the same place. Do you really need two sets of trucks, two sets of buildings?" Marcello asked rhetorically.
"There is an obvious opportunity to reduce cost," he said.
"I think ultimately councillors are going to look at the proposition we brought forward, they're going to look at the economics of it, their going to look at the service and the value we're providing to the community," he said.
"The Ombudsman, he's doing his job. He's highlighted some problems we're having and we're focused on fixing them," Marcello said.
Marcello said Hydro One is already making improvements based on some of the issues being highlighted by Marin's investigation.
The city of Woodstock is currently in the process of reviewing Hydro One's proposal to acquire Woodstock Hydro. The local utility is already a customer of Hydro One's power transmission network.
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