Tories recalling legislature

Debating back-to-work legislation after union rejects OPG’s latest offer

PCs preparing back-to-work legislation to avert power workers’ strike,

The Progressive Conservative government is recalling the legislature next week to impose back-to-work legislation to short-circuit a power workers’ strike that would zap nearly half of Ontario’s electricity.

As first revealed by the Star on Friday morning, Premier Doug Ford’s administration is acting to circumvent job action by the Power Workers’ Union (PWU) after it rejected Ontario Power Generation’s final contract offer.

MPPs, who rose Dec. 6 for the winter break, will be back in the house on Monday afternoon to begin debating the legislation.

It is expected to take several days to pass.

Energy Minister Greg Rickford, who raced back to Toronto from Kenora early Friday, said the situation is very serious.

“It’s about keeping the lights on for families and businesses,” Rickford said in an interview.

“Forty per cent of Ontario’s electricity comes from those 10 units,” the minister said of the nuclear reactors at Darlington and Pickering.

Rickford stressed that the PWU is being very professional in adhering “to a critical 21-day timeline that’s required to safely wind these units down.”

Still, the government was worried a stoppage by the union would lead to “rolling blackouts” over the Christmas holiday.

That fear was underscored by the province’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO). “A Power Workers’ Union strike at Ontario Power Generation would put the reliability of Ontario’s electricity system at risk,” the IESO said.

“The shutdown of OPG’s nuclear and hydroelectric facilities could occur in approximately three weeks,” the operator said.

“At that point, Ontario would not have the generation needed to meet consumer demand and customers would begin losing power.” In a statement Thursday night, the government said “any prolonged outage caused by a job action would jeopardize electricity supply to Ontario’s industry and businesses, which could have a devastating impact and ripple effect on our province’s economy.”

“We will not allow Ontario families and seniors to spend their holiday season in the dark or to go without heat. We will do whatever is required to protect the health and safety of the people of Ontario.”

PWU president Mel Hyatt, whose 16,000-member union represents 6,000 OPG employees, said the workers are considering their next steps.

“We are disappointed that OPG provided a final offer that remained unchanged from the previous offer that had already been rejected. We need to reach an agreement that will strengthen the reliability of Ontario’s energy sector,” Hyatt said.

OPG said it was “disappointed that its fair and reasonable offer was not ratified by PWU members.”