The head of privately owned Bruce Power hosted an exclusive $100,000 fundraiser for the Liberals shortly before Premier Kathleen Wynne shelved publicly owned rival Ontario Power Generation’s new nuclear reactors, the Star has learned.

On Sept. 10, Bruce Power president and CEO Duncan Hawthorne held the cosy dinner for about a dozen high rollers at the posh Four Seasons Hotel on Yorkville Ave. in Toronto.

Wynne was the guest of honour and Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli was also on hand to hobnob with movers and shakers in the electricity sector.

The event was organized as the Ontario government was finalizing its Oct. 10 decision to not proceed with the $15-billion construction of two new nuclear reactors at Darlington, which would have been operated by OPG.

It also comes at a time when there has been a push in some quarters for Bruce Power to run OPG’s existing Darlington nuclear station and oversee the planned refurbishment of reactors there and at Kincardine.

Chiarelli said the fundraiser had no bearing on the Liberal government’s energy policy-making.

“In my opinion, it had nothing to do with the cabinet decision to not proceed with new nuclear at this time,” the minister said in an interview this week.

In an email, Bruce Power’s John Peevers would neither confirm nor deny the company had conducted the fundraiser for the governing party.

“Like many companies and organizations across the province, Bruce Power has a policy of donating to all major political parties including the NDP, PCs and Liberals,” wrote Peevers.

“This is done in compliance with Elections Ontario rules that provide transparency regarding all donations made. If you have questions on specific events put on by political parties, you would have to contact them directly.”

Ontario Liberal Party vice-president of communications Christine McMillan called fundraising “a normal part of the political process.”

“As the leader of the Liberal party, Premier Wynne does attend a number of fundraisers with government stakeholders as do the leaders of the opposition parties,” McMillan wrote in an email.

“Our party is open and transparent when it comes to reporting fundraising donations, and we require donations to be posted publicly within 10 days as part of the Elections Ontario Act. This information is available at www.electionsontario.on.ca.”

As of Wednesday, that updated information on the fundraiser had not been posted on Elections Ontario’s website, likely because the cheques have yet to be received or processed.

Chiarelli said “there were a whole series of things discussed” over wine and canapés behind closed doors at the Four Seasons Hotel.

“We talked about how the nuclear sector is structured,” the minister said when asked if the matter of Bruce running OPG’s Darlington nukes was broached.

“My recollection is that consensus was that everyone was happy with one public entity and one private entity. Absolutely there was no serious . . . discussion on that type of issue,” he said, adding that proposal “hasn’t come forward in any formal way in the system.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“There was no particular agenda. It was a get-together. It was more along the lines of brainstorming. We certainly use those opportunities to try to sense and measure what people in the industry are saying.”

About $100,000 was raised for Liberal coffers, according to Grit sources with knowledge of the event. Those who purchased tickets included Aecon Group Inc., Babcock & Wilcox Canada, Borealis Infrastructure Management, the Canadian Union of Skilled Workers, Crossby Dewar Inc., Jingoli Canada Inc., Scotiabank, Mathews Dinsdale & Clark LLP, McCarthy Tétrault LLP, the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario, and Teranet Inc.

Bruce Power president and CEO Duncan Hawthorne, who did not respond to repeated Star requests by email and telephone over the past week for an interview, is an influential player in Ontario’s energy industry. He travelled to India with former premier Dalton McGuinty in 2009 to promote the province’s nukes.

The major shareholder in Bruce Power, which operates the Bruce A and B nuclear facilities, is TransCanada Corp., the company behind the Oakville gas-fired plant the Liberals cancelled in 2010 at a potential cost to taxpayers of $815 million.

The fundraiser highlights a potential lobbying advantage that Bruce Power has over OPG.

As a Crown corporation, the provincial utility is not allowed to host political fundraisers or spend for electoral purposes.

Read more about: