Feedback from Board of Trade Meeting

I thought that you would be interested in the feedback from the Board of
Trade Electricity Taskforce meeting this morning: a)
On the weekend, May 4- 6, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce unanimously adopted
the Toronto Board of Trade's position paper re market opening on November 1,
2001. The OCC is the umbrella organization of all local chambers of
commerce/ boards of trade across Ontario. The Toronto Board of Trade
position paper largely follows the Enron position paper re market
opening. b) Elyse Allan, Louise Verity and Jan
Carr (all representing the Toronto Board of Trade) met with Minister Wilson
and Judy Hubert on Tuesday, May 8. Wilson explicitly asked the BOT to "keep
up the heat" on a November 1 opening. Wilson was evidently very impressed by
the OCC resolution. c) Some concern was expressed by
David McFadden (head of SAC and BE's lawyer) that OPG may not put the
fossil units on the block until August, since the Ministry of the
Environment's new emissions regulations will not be promulgated until that
time. Paul might want to raise this with Gord Homer: I don't see why OPG
would have to wait until August to begin the process; the substance of the
regs are known now, even if they are not law until
August. d) A fight is brewing between the City of
Toronto and the Province regarding the Hearn facility. The City wants to
tear it down as part of their waterfront plan but the Province is pushing to
keep it as a generation facility of some type. The IMO has evidently prepared
a report on the issue that has not yet been made
public. e)There was a push from some
taskforce members (particularly Jan Carr) to adopt, as a transitional
measure, some type of controls to limit exports and control prices in
Ontario. This was a non-starter with most of the members of the taskforce
and that initiative will not go forward. I have undertaken, instead, to give
the BOT some talking points that they can use in answering questions about
interregional trade and the type of comments that Howard Hampton (NDP
leader) is making about the US sucking cheap power out of Ontario.