Article content continued

“Our job is to help the customers lower the bill,” Mr. Haines said, noting Torontonians are one of the highest per capita users of energy in the world.

“We’ve had cheap, abundant energy for 100 years….We have programs to get people to close their doors while the air conditioner’s running. You wouldn’t go to Europe and see that happening. I think we have a long way to go.”

The proliferation of renewable power sources, such as wind energy, will bring a new set of challenges, Mr. Haines said. Wind is difficult to predict; one day may bring extreme winds, and the next, dead calm.

“To plan a power supply around that kind of scenario is a challenge,” he said, adding this would necessitate an “overbuild” to ensure demands can be met.

Mr. Haines also addressed on Wednesday a campaign promise by mayoral candidate Rocco Rossi to build subways by selling off Toronto Hydro. Mr. Rossi’s “Transit City Plus” vision involves spending $4.5-billion over the next decade, which he believes can be achieved by wiping out the city’s $2.4-billion debt and thus freeing up the $450-million spent servicing that debt every year.

To erase debt, Mr. Rossi has pledged to sell Toronto Hydro and “some additional non-essential assets.”

Such a sale would impact neither rates — which are set by the Ontario Energy Board — nor service, nor the corporation’s ambitious infrastructure renewal plan, Mr. Haines said.

He said Toronto Hydro’s “equity” is about $1-billion, twice as much as it was 10 years ago, but would likely trade at a premium.

“The determination of when you harvest that or if you harvest that value is … an election issue,” Mr. Haines said.

“I guess this is a good thing, to go from — if we think about when Mayor Miller came in, there was crime in the streets and we were having debates about murders — to we’re having debates about what to do with a great asset. I guess that’s progress, but we’ll let the politicians decide if that’s in the public’s best interest.”