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Local governments lleserve recognition NORTHERN INSIGHTS by Larry Sanders Three weeks ago, I began to discuss the federal government's constitutional proposals, but I also said I was open to your suggestions. If Mulroney can do it, so can NORTHERN INSIGHTS. If you have some aspect of the constitution- al discussion you think I should talk about, write to me. My address is 72 Jean Street, Thunder Bay, Ontario P7A S5E9. Mulroney's Proposals for Shaping Canada's Future do address the question of aboriginal self-government, albeit not to the satisfaction of the Assembly of First Nations. But however that aspect of the constitutional debate resolves itself, there is now no doubt that aboriginal people will achieve some kind of constitutional status. At the band council level, these powers will resemble those of a municipality: the power to raise taxes, pass local zoning and other types of by-laws, and run recreation programs. Don't have official status The problem is that municipalities themselves do not have official status under the constitution. Towns and cities are "creatures of the provinces". In other words, municipalities only have the powers and rights given to them by the province. Yet the municipal level of government is the one that most affects our daily lives. Garbage is collected, water flows through taps, toilets are flushed, streets are ploughed, and kids go to school--every day. Yet Mul- roney's 28 Proposals make no mention of municipalities' status changing. Iain Angus, the NDP MP for Thunder Bay - Atikokan, suggested in March of last year that municipalities should push for formal constitutional status. At a municipal convention, he suggested that municipalities get their case ready for the " next round of constitutional talks". That time has come. Angus argued that giving municipalities formal status under the constitution would get at the real problem town councils said they are complaining about when they passed the "English-only" resolutions: the nasty habit of senior gov- ernments legislating programs that force municipalities to pay, without giving municipalities the right to say no, or any right to raise income to pay for these programs though income tax. The municipalities are forced to raise property taxes, and Angus maintains that's not fair. "Property tax, as is sales tax, is the most regressive form of raising government revenues, because there is no rela- tionship to the ability to pay. Only if municipalities are able to tap income tax in a direct way, will they be able to respond more appropriately to the demands of the people that they directly represent." Under Angus's proposed constitutional amendment, municipalities would get more than the right to say "no" to senior levels of government. That's the way it works now between the provinces and the federal government. Ottawa can't pass legislation in areas of provincial jurisdiction (such as education, health, or natural resources) without also adding a financial "carrot"--an incentive to help the provinces pay the bills. Angus says "Ottawa cannot uni- laterally go in and tell the province of Ontario, you shall provide this service. They have to say, we want you to provide this service, and in order to make it easier for you to do so, here are the bucks." Municipal rights Angus wants to give municipalities that same right. "Under a new constitu- tion that gives municipalities the right to raise their own share of the income tax dollar, if a province wanted to impose a policy on to the municipal level, whether its environmental policy , if the constitution defined the environment as the purview of the municipality, or pay equity, or any number of other aspects that are defined as municipal, they would have to provide the bucks to do it. But ultimately the municipality would still have the control, because they could decide to say "no There are some problems with Angus's theories. For example, municipali- ties' environmental track record has not been very green, since they balk at having to pay for sewage treatment plants. Towns and cities have also had to be forced into pay equity, even though its a basic human rights principle. Towns and cities did not ask the province to require them to pay female clerks in the tax department the same wages as mail attendants in hockey arenas. Given that history, it may not be wise to give municipalities jurisdiction over the environment, or human rights. Nonetheless, Angus's ideas still merit public discussion, particularly now, in this "Canada round". With clearly defined constitutional authority, municipali- ties would no longer have to go cap in hand to provincial cabinet members. Instead, towns and cities would really be self-governing. It's much like native people wanting to get out from under the veto power of federal bureaucrats. We've just given a fresh mandate to:a new crop of municipal politicians. I challenge them to make their case to Ottawa, and get municipalities the status they rightly deserve in our new Canada. Page 5, News, Tuesday, November 26 1991 estimate... Orrilia's Power Commissioner says Hydro is out of control The Ontario Hydro organization and its associated costs are out of control and operating well beyond its original mandate of supplying electric power at cost. At a recent meeting of municipal and Ontario Hydro officials, executive members of Ontario Hydro announced that there will be a double digit increase in the wholesale cost of electricity, and that customers can expect more double digit increases as early as next year. Average rate increases announced for 1992 are 11.8 per cent, on top of 8.6 per cent for 1991--the tip of the iceberg. The public must become aware of Ontario's present policies, which put an added strain on the economy by increasing costs and which will undoubtedly encourage increased movement of industry south of the border. Grossly over staffed Ontario Hydro is grossly overstaffed in senior and middle managers, attribut- ed in part to the empire building of the 1970s and 1980s. To be efficient and in line with organizations in the 'real world', Ontario Hydro should have less than | half the number of employees in its head office and geographic regions. For years, Ontario Hydro marketed and promoted electricity with horrendous- ly expensive media marketing techniques to encourage the use of electrical ener- gy. The reverse is now the situation, as Hydro's new plan is conservation; to encourage--even financing--a switch to gas from electric heat. This new $2.7 billion plan is geared to try and save power equivalent to the output of six Dar- lington-sized reactors by the year 2000. Hydro is planning a large PR campaign to try and sell conservation and cush- ion rate increases required, in part, to promote it. The first PR program involves 100 transport truckloads of light bulbs. Hydro mailed, through Canada Post, a package of two 52-watt bulbs to 3.6 million Ontario households, together with coupons that will subsidize the purchase of compact fluorescent and halogen bulbs from selected firms. The goal of Power at Cost is not being met in view of the following facts: «Ontario Hydro's debt, as of June 30, 1991, is $30.547 billion ($30,547,000,000.00), almost 10 per cent of Canada's total national federal gov- ernment debt, and equal to 86 per cent of the utility's total asset value. *Ontario Hydro has 35,846 employees on staff (end of Aug., 1991). Many are paid at wage levels higher than 20 per cent over the private sector. *Executive salaries are totally out of line in comparison with the public service and do not include many fringe benefits, cost of limousines and chauffeurs, for- eign travel, etc. Wage scales at this level are (annually) Chairman--$352,000 to $528,000, President--$257,000 to $386,000, 13 Vice-presidents--$124,000 to $292,000. *Hydro has agreed to transfer $65 million to the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund so that it can be used to fund economic diversification in Eliot Lake, and Blind River in retiring their municipal debt. *Hydro is to spend $25 million on hydraulic contracts in the Eliot Lake area which were low priority items in their original plans. *Hydro spent close to $25 million on intervener funding (giving money to opposing groups to help them make their case against Hydro) for its environ- mental assessment of its 25 year plan. *The Darlington project, originally estimated to cost $2.07 billion, is now esti- mated to cost $13.5 billion and rising (it's not yet completed). Would this hap- pen in the private sector? Darlington a "sinkhole" Darlington is "probably the biggest management screw-up in the history of Canadian industry," said utilities analyst Tom Adams, of Toronto's Energy Probe Research Foundation. Current cost estimates have risen 4.7 per cent, from $12.9 billion in 1990's forecast. Darlington has tured into a massive sinkhole for Hydro spending. Its current price tag is more than 380 per cent greater--in real dollars--than the original and still climbing. "The cost overrun on Darlington has been staggering, and is getting worse all | the time," Adams says. I have no affiliation with any other group. I am acting unilaterally and person- ally, paying all costs related to this letter in the media. By way of this letter, I solicit you, the energy consumers, to write, telephone or fax your elected representatives in the Provincial Legislature, with a copy to the Premier and the President of Ontario Hydro, requesting them to bring this essential utility back to realistic control. Without your help, your local Hydro commissions are powerless to absorb any of the increase--or the predicted 44 per cent increase--over the next three years. Yours Truly, Frank Kehoe, Commissioner, Orrilia Water, Light and Power Commission