TORONTO ONTARIO – Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath didn’t let Premier Kathleen Wynne off the hook during the first question period following the release of the sunshine list, pressing Wynne for allowing an untold number of million-dollar salaries to be paid out to Hydro One executives while forcing Ontarians, buckling under skyrocketing hydro bills, to foot the bill.
The Hydro One CEO raked in $4.5 million in 2016, a 500 per cent increase from the last time the CEO’s salary appeared on the Sunshine list. But the list of highly-paid Hydro One employees wasn’t included on the sunshine list, since Wynne moved to exclude it from transparency.
“Can the premier tell Ontarians why her priority seems to be protecting the salary and anonymity of the people at the top instead of regular Ontario families and businesses that are struggling just to get by?” Horwath asked. “By privatizing Hydro One, Premier 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.
“What does the premier have to say to Ontarians who are struggling just to keep up with their hydro bills and are outraged by her continued insistence on selling-off Hydro One while hiding how much its employees are paid?”
Horwath urged Wynne to look to Bombardier – which listened to the public in Montreal and is now holding off on pay increases for the company’s top executives.
“Here in Ontario, people are equally outraged at the planned pay hike for Hydro One’s CEO, especially amid soaring hydro bills,” Horwath said. “Why won’t the premier do the right thing and rein in the salaries of executives at Hydro One?”