City nixes bid to assess power station
St. Catharines city council doesn’t deal with too many $30-million issues.
So, when one comes up, you’d figure there might be some public discussion about it. Wrong-o. Well, at least not last month when sources tell me council was asked to endorse a St. Catharines Hydro initiative that could have possibly led to the sale of the Heywood Generating Station in Port Dalhousie.
Council declined to support Hydro’s position.
Now, one might understand why this discussion at hydro headquarters was held behind closed doors. After all, it is a property matter. Although, from what I was told, all the hydro board was asking to do at this time was to obtain a valuation of the property.
Once an estimated value of the Heywood station was established, the hydro board could explore various options going forward, including putting it up for sale or seeking a partnership.
OK, go ahead. Chat about it in-camera. But, surely, once the matter was put to a vote and resolved, either the city or St. Catharines Hydro would state publicly what transpired. Nope. However, the city did issue a news release last week on Happy Rolph Animal Farm welcoming a new female baby calf.
For the uninitiated, here is some background. (On hydro, not the calf.)
St. Catharines Hydro — of which the City of St. Catharines is the sole shareholder — is a holding company for the subsidiary St. Catharines Hydro Generation, which operates the Heywood Generating Station.
Heywood, which came on stream in 1989, produces enough power for about 2,000 homes.
The local hydro company once had higher aspirations. You may recall that for the past decade or so it was formulating plans for the Shickluna hydro-electric plant, a project that once in operation would eventually provide annual dividends of a million dollars to the city.
The estimated capital costs for Shickluna kept rising, though, torpedoing its profitable business case. On the hydro board’s recommendation, the city agreed to pull the plug on the project earlier this year.
With Shickluna out of the picture, the hydro board could focus its full attention on Heywood. In doing so, it decided to consider various options. Thus, the bid to assess its value.
Grand matters such as this are run past the shareholders, essentially city council. And that’s why the special incamera meeting was held at the hydro office a few weeks ago.
Preliminary guesstimates in the past have put Heywood’s value at anywhere between $20 million and $34 million. To get a firmer figure, the hydro board proposed hiring an appropriate valuator for $250,000.
Sources say city council was apparently divided on the issue. Mayor Walter Sendzik led the charge to support hydro’s recommendation. Coun. Mike Britton marshalled forces to oppose it. The opposition won in a close vote.
At the risk of simplifying the arguments, proponents saw little harm in getting a valuation in order to better judge future business options; opponents either didn’t like the $250,000 cost to conduct the valuation or saw it as a thinly disguised way to sell an asset that produces significant annual revenue for the city.
The issue of selling a revenue-producing public asset for big bucks has often been fodder for debate. Think Highway 407, Hydro One and the Ontario retail booze business among others.
Hearing the business case for selling or hanging on to the Heywood Generating Station would undoubtedly have interested many St. Catharines citizens. Heck, they might have been happy just to know a discussion had taken place.
Sadly, though, it all occurred under the cover of darkness.
On a brighter note, the name of the newborn at Happy Rolph’s is Clover. As of last week, the city reported, Clover and mother Oreo were doing well.