Sunshine list incomplete: Hydro One’s unnamed taking untold billions

The number of well-heeled people being highly paid by Hydro One is a mystery – a black hole in Friday’s sunshine list, according the NDP.

“How many names, and how much money would be added to this sunshine list if Premier Wynne didn’t give her partially-privatized company permission to hide that information?” asked NDP MPP Peter Tabuns, the NDP’s energy critic.

“How many names? How much money?”

Premier Kathleen Wynne excluded Hydro One from the so-called sunshine list – an annual publication of the names and salaries of all public employees earning more than $100,000 – before she sold off the first 30 per cent of the profitable electricity company. Now, Ontario families struggling to keep up with rapidly sky-rocketing hydro bills won’t know just how many well-positioned people are taking home untold billions from Hydro One.

“This week, we heard in the legislature that Jamie LaCross has turned off the heat in her Sault Ste. Marie home, and is keeping her two little ones warm by putting propane heaters in the house. I was thinking of Jamie when I read that the tip of the iceberg – just the CEO at Hydro One – is raking in $4.5 million,” said Tabuns.

“By privatizing Hydro One, Kathleen Wynne ensured three things: that those at the top can take massive salaries; that the rest of us will pay massive electricity bills; and that she could throw a blanket of secrecy over the whole mess.”

Because Hydro One is traded on the stock market, the top five earners’ salaries are made public. That short list equals $11 million, with the CEO personally pocketing $4.5 million.

On top of the untold billions in high Hydro One compensation, Ontario Power Generation doled out $1.1 billion to Ontario Power Generation staff.