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Woodstock Mayor's Breakfast

Woodstock Mayor Pat Sobeski addresses his breakfast audience Thursday at Quality Hotel and Suites.

Woodstock Mayor Pat Sobeski focused on the city entering into exclusive talks with Hydro One over the potential sale of Woodstock Hydro.

WOODSTOCK -- The potential sale of Woodstock Hydro was a key point in Woodstock Mayor Pat Sobeski's "Breakfast with the Mayor" speech at the Quality Hotel and Suites Thursday.

Following his speech, Mayor Sobeski outlined why it was prudent for council to enter into exclusive talks with Hydro One over the potential sale of the city owned utility...

"Well, I think if people asked me five years ago I'd say, 'as long as it makes a profit' people like to see 'Woodstock Hydro' on the side of the truck, just like they'd like to see 'Woodstock Police' on the side of the vehicle, so there's that local flavour that's being demonstrated by all the LDC's across the province, but each little local LDC is a separate story."

Sobeski says Norfolk and Haldimand County chose different paths regarding potential sale of their locally run utilities.  While Norfolk has attempted a Request For Proposals related to a sale, Haldimand, like Woodstock, chose to deal with Hydro One exclusively.

The Ministry of Energy in 2012 established a sector panel review report which recommended province-wide consolidation of local electricity companies, all part of an effort to improve cost-effectiveness and efficiency in the energy sector.

When examining the future prospects for Woodstock Hydro, Sobeski says one of the things the city should look at is the growth potential of the utility going forward.

"One of the things that you want to look at it is your growth potential, but unfortunately here in Woodstock we're surrounded by Hydro One, even within the city boundary. So a lot of our future residential, even a lot of future industrial growth will all be serviced by Hydro One, because it's already in their territory."

If any agreement comes to sell Woodstock Hydro to Hydro One, Sobeski says Woodstock would likely represent only three percent of a possible 500-thousand customer base under a more regional utility.  He says because of Ontario Energy Board controls, and the prevalence of Hydro One already locally, the city can't invest any further in growing Woodstock Hydro.

Meanwhile, the provincial government says the debt retirement charge will be coming off hydro bills in 2016, but residential consumers will still see their hydro bills go up. 

Residential will see the increase, even though the governing Liberals plan to remove the debt retirement charge from their monthly statements. 

The Ontario Clean Energy Benefit, which takes 10% off hydro bills, will also expire at the same time. 

The government says a typical family consuming about 800 kilowatt hours per month will save about $75 per year once the debt retirement charge is removed. 

But those savings would be cancelled out by the loss of an $180 annual rebate from the clean energy benefit, which was introduced in 2012.

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