Important Presentation on Proposed Merger Guelph Hydro / Horizon
Open to the Public
Tues, Feb 26
7pm in the City Council Chambers
Hydro Board of Directors presentation to the CityConcerns regarding merger:
Guelph Hydro is quite impressive in the field of utilities. The quality of the electrical system contributes to lower maintenance costs so provided monies to fund new capital projects.
Beyond loss of jobs that provides the funding for lower rates, Guelph’s electrical system is in really good shape. Merging with a company with an older system, requiring a lot of maintenance and upgrades may very well syphon Guelph Hydro’s customers moneys out of the city. Huge risk and loss of profit share when teaming with larger and distant Hamilton. Guelph, Waterloo, Kit and Cambridge seem the logical merge. Huge risk for the City and the Guelph Hydro customers.
Further, selling sell the idea that Horizon Utilities (Hamilton) is the “best fit” for Guelph, I am not buying. A pile of money has been spent to date to pay people to determine the potential business partnership. Guelph Hydro has not “discussed” to this depth, a business partnerships with any other utilities, so it is not right to suggest Horizon (Hamilton) is the “best fit”.
Guelph Hydro has a good group of people working and growing together and grow to build an impressive electrical system and a positive workplace. A great deal of work has been done to improve morale and communications between and among Union and Management folk. This improvement is evident through the 130 attendees at Guelph Hydro’s recent Christmas Dinner/Dance. Given an employee base of 91, this is pretty impressive. In stark contrast, a Horizon representative expressed they have a very poor work atmosphere in most of their departments. In fact, given the much higher employee base at Horizon
Utility they only managed “about 100 people” at their Christmas function.Poor work environments lead to poor work performance and poor employee
involvement. But worst, customer service suffers. Compare this to Guelph, and you can see Horizon’s current state speaks volumes. Also, Horizon has not undertaken what Guelph has to improve. There is a concern in the inevitable detriment Guelph Hydro’s work atmosphere will face if merged with such a larger, much more influential, but less positive work environment.What further gains are pending for some folks, but beyond the following of the Provincial Mandate of merging utilities? Opening the door to a potential partner of such distance, such poor workplace environment and of such state of electrical system seems to be to the detriment to Guelph Hydro and it’s customers. BM