Article content

The deal that sent Hydro One chief executive Mayo Schmidt out the door changes almost nothing about the semi-private company other than the names on the stationery.

Schmidt, Premier Doug Ford’s scapegoat for everything that’s wrong in Ontario’s electricity system, retired this week rather than spend the summer as the premier’s punching bag. The terms of his departure are neither as good as Ford says they are, nor as bad as the opposition New Democrats say.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Reevely: Hydro One boss is out but departure deal will keep much else from changing Back to video

At the highest level, Schmidt’s exit is most definitely a win for the Progressive Conservatives.

“You can take this to the bank,” Ford said last spring. “The CEO’s gone and the board’s gone. We need to start respecting the taxpayers. The $6-million man is gone. The party’s over, it’s done. The party’s over with the taxpayers’ money.”

Schmidt is gone. The board is gone. Promise made, promise kept.

Schmidt gets no severance money, as Ford happily said when Schmidt quit Wednesday night, not a dime of the $10.7 million he’d be entitled to under his contract if the provincial government had fired the Hydro One board and installed new directors to fire the guy.