City takes North Bay Hydro back

Mayor Vic Fedeli says that the changes come after the HOLDCO board (City Council) received a letter from the DISTCO board (former Hydro Board). "We were very concerned at some of the contents of the letter and we felt that we wanted to join that board. So we appointed six new members to that board.” “Basically we've gone into Hydro and taken it back for the city, at least temporarily. We’ve terminated the General Manager and appointed the Operations Manager, Jim Snider, as the interim General Manager. Basically it’s just a re-vamping of Hydro there is a lot of things coming up that need to be addressed and we felt that we needed a new board in place to address them.”

Stern Enough for Concern

Although unable to discuss the exact contents of the letter Mayor Fedeli said “it was a stern enough letter from the DISTCO board that it made the entire council concerned for the viability of the future of North Bay Hydro and so we basically just stepped in.”

North Bay Hydro Not For Sale

When asked about some of the things coming up that the new board will need to addressed Mayor Fedeli responded “the whole Hydro industry, they call it de-regulated and it’s not, it is re-regulated it’s even more regulated than it was in the past. There are a lot of changes happening in terms of takeovers, amalgamations, Hydro boards joining with others to strengthen themselves. Certainly we are not talking about ever selling North Bay Hydro that’s nothing to do with this what so ever, that’s not even on the table. The Ontario Energy Board is talking about what they call a shoulder to shoulder policy throughout Ontario, they are trying to reduce the number of Hydro utilities in Ontario from about ninety to about four and although we don’t believe that will happen we want to position ourselves as a strong Hydro Utility so we can remain independent and serve the people of North Bay.”