The Chairman Reports

DISTINGUISHED GUESTS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN

It is with great pleasure that I introduce to you today one who is so well known, and I might add, so favourably known to every citizen of Toronto, our Ex-Mayor, Robert H. Saunders, C.B.E., K.C. Our guest or honour was born and educated in Toronto and served his city as alderman and controller for ten years and was elected four successive years as mayor of Toronto.

Mr. Saunders' resignation a month ago as mayor of the city came as rather a shock to the citizens of this city but we all feel sure that his appointment as chairman of the HydroElectric Power Commission of Ontario will widen his held of service, and we know that with his experience, he will bring to his new appointment all the outstanding qualities which have distinguished his service in the past. I know we all feel that what Toronto has lost, the Province of Ontario has gained.

One of the most interesting and instructive innovations which Mr. Saunders inaugurated was his weekly broadcast--"The Mayor Reports". I don't suppose many members of The Empire Club heard this broadcast as it was one o'clock each Sunday and they would hardly be home from church. Your chairman always hurried home or listened to him in the car and I am glad to see that our new mayor is continuing this report over the air each week.

I will now call on Mr. Robert H. Saunders, C.B.E., K.C., chairman of the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, who will address us on the subject:

"The Chairman Reports"

Mr. Saunders:

Thank you very much, Mr. President, and Fellow Members of The Empire Club: May I say I appreciate very much the honour that has been done me in giving me the privilege of speaking to your body this afternoon. I do it with a certain amount of fear, in view of the fact that seated at the head table is the Hon. George Challies. He knows a great deal about Hydro, incidentally. And also on my right is Cominissioner Ross Strike, K.C., the other Commissioner on the Hydro. I am a brave man indeed to stand here and report to you, the people, not only of Toronto but throughout this Province, on the subject of Hydro. Also I am a brave man in view of the fact we have our highly efficient General Manager and Chief Engineer here, Dick Hearn, and his Assistant, Dr. Otto Holden. These chaps are certainly not looking forward to learning anything about Hydro from your guestspeaker, I assure you. I assure you also I am not going to try to teach them anything about the operation of the Hydro.

May I say I do intend to enter into the field of reporting to the people of the Province of Ontario on the subject of their Hydro Commission. I believe that it is the duty of the Chairman of this Commission to let the people of the Province know exactly what is happening with their Hydro, to let the people of this Province know exactly what is going on in the realm of Hydro and I know of no better way in which the people can find out firsthand than by a report through the medium of a report given by the Chairman.

So, Mr. President, I did check you up before you introduced me. I checked you up on the statement that you listened to my broadcasts. I find you did. You were listening to my broadcast one other time when I was talking about water, as I probably will today, and at that time I referred to the water content in a certain liquid beverage that is sold in Toronto. Art Lascelles and I had something to do with taking off the discount on that real beverage, that water, and Hinde & Dauch and other companies were not very happy, incidentally. Others complained bitterly and I found they were paying the city three and three-quarters cents per gallon for water that thev were able to sell--I think the ratio of water in their product was 90 percent--they were able to sell their product at ten cents per eight ounce glass. I didn't think they were doing badly at all and I certainly did not believe I should be subjected to any criticism.

Gentleman, I have for many years looked upon the late Sir Adam Beck with a great deal of admiration. I have attended Memorial Services for the late Sir Adam Beck on many occasions and may I say that my studies during the past few weeks have certainly convinced me that more of the people of this Province should remember the wonderful work that was done by Sir Adam many years ago. The trials and tribulations of the then Chairman of this Commission must have been tremendous. Criticism from almost every angle--criticism not only from Canada but from the United States and from other countries as well--prophecies that this great experiment was going to be an utter failure. In fact there was a book written back many years ago, known by the title, "The Expensive Experiment", written by a New York Engineer who prophcsied, of course, the utter disaster to this province because of this most expensive experiment, the experiment of Public Ownership.

However, the actual facts, as I hope to prove to you, have shown that the author certainly was not a good prophet. The actual facts will bear out that statement.

When we go back and look at the origin of the Commission we see that between 1900 and 1910 the people of Ontario realized that if the Province were to maintain its standing as Canada's chief manufacturing center, and if those industries were to expand to meet an expanding Canada, then a bountiful supply of electric energy at moderate prices was absolutely essential.

At that time large municipalities were being supplied with electric energy by private companies, which largely, of course, depended upon steam as the source of power. A few municipalities on the Niagara River were fortunate enough to be in close proximity to Niagara Falls and also Decew Falls and they were able to obtain their power from those two privately owned generating plants. However, the great argument that was put up at that time I find--actually I wasn't very old in 1906 and 1907 and I wasn't much interested in Hydro because in 1906 I was only three years old, so I must take my information from hearsay, but I do say the argument at that time I would subscribe to today--the great argument at that time was that power being derived from a natural resource of this country should, of course, belong to the people of this Province, and for that reason the late Sir Adam Beck and many others did go into the question of public ownership of this great utility. The outcome, may I say, of much study, was the adoption of a scheme for co-operative municipal ownership under the guidance and control of an independent Commission.

Thus, Gentlemen, was born the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario.

In 1908 the Commission, on behalf of the municipalities entered into the first contract, a contract with the Ontario Power Company for a maximum of 100,000 horsepower. The Commission built transformer stations, transmission lines for the distribution of this power to serve in 1910, and the first service, I understand, was given in 1910 to some twelve municipalities, at an initial cost backed by the Government of this Province, of some $3,600,000. We all know that back in 1910 and 1911, $3,000,000 was a tremendous sum of money. Yet the experiment went ahead and as I say, in 1910, the first distribution took place on behalf of twelve municipalities.

Well, the work of the Commission began to grow and it is a source of great pride to me, as a citizen of this Province, and should be a source of great pride to every person who resides in this province, the tremendous development of Hyro over the past thirty or thirty-three rears.

By 1915 the number of municipalities had increased to 130. In 1920 there were 263, in 1925 the figure had reached 436, in 1928-just imagine the tremendous development over those years!--in 1928 the 436 had become 550 municipalities. Of these 325 were urban, including 25 cities and 94 towns and 225 townships.

May I bring you up to date? In a period of 38 years' development to the place where last year we served 942 municipalities in this province. That included 26 cities, 123 towns and mining town sites, 315 villages and police villages and 478 townships and improvement districts.

You say, yes, that is one side of the picture. What is the other side? How much power was used?

We look back at 1910 and the initial load was 1,000 horsepower. In 1914 it had increased to 77,000 horsepower. By 1915, in one year, it had increased to 100,000 horsepower, the limit of its contract with the Ontario Power Company.

Then the Commission purchased the additional 50,000 horsepower coming from the Canadian Niagara Company and another 25,000 horsepower from the Toronto Power Company. Just look at the phenomenal development of this public enterprise over these years. In 1917 the plant capacity of 160,000 horsepower of the Ontario Power Company was purchased and increased almost immediately to 180,000 horsepower, just seven years after the first delivery. In 1920, the Toronto Power Company, with its plant of 125,000 horsepower capacity was acquired. In 1920 the load was 356,000 horsepower compared with 77,000 horsepower in 1914, and 100,000 in 1915. In five years, an increase from 100,000 to 356,000 horsepower.

In view of these rapid developments, the Legislature of this Province gave authority for the construction of the Queenston-Chippawa plant, which now has a capacity of some 550,000 horsepower.

When I start talking in figures like this, Gentlemen, I do feel almost like Amos and Andy. I throw a few on and I take a few off somewhere.

However, if we go back to 1920 we find a load of 356,000 horsepower. Then cooling up to modern days, in terms of the normal dependable peak capacity, we are now generating 1,753,600 horsepower. May I say this power comes from over fifty plants stretched from east to west across the province. We have under construction some eight plants with present approved capacity of over 1,000,000 horsepower. We are hopeful that this additional 1,000,000 horsepower will be available to the people of this province in or about the year 1954.

These plants are located: One on the Madawaska River at Stewartville. It is most interesting to see the developments that are going on in this province. I have had the privilege of flying over these plants, flying around the plants. It certainly is a source of great pride that we are developing so tremendously in this province.

They are on the Madawaska River, as I said, at Stewartville; on the Ottawa River at Des Joachims; (I don't know whether my pronunciation is right there. I have heard so many different ways of pronouncing that word that I have stuck to the one, "DeSwishim". Looking at the spelling I am sure I do not know how they can possibly get "DeSwishim" out of that. I will spell it: D-e-s J-o-a-c-h-i-m-s. You fellows can figure out for yourselves how the word should be pronounced.) On the Ottawa River at Chenaux; on the Aguasabon River at Terrace Bay; on the Nipigon River at Pine Portage; on the Mississagi River at the tunnel, somewhere near Thessalon; on the English River at Ear Falls, and near Red Lake. (I am certainly glad I have Dick here or I would have to stumble all over the lot a little more than I am doing actually, Gentlemen.)

However, the fact is that we can look forward to tremendous developments in the future. But looking back at the origin of Hydro, it must be remembered that the very origin was a partnership with the municipalities of this Province. Our duty is to supply the municipalities of this Province both in the Thunder Bay District and in the Southern Ontario District with power at cost. With regard to Northern Ontario we are trustees for the Ontario Government.

When you look at cost of course we must protect the future of this system and cost does take in, I believe, those items which go to make up a sufficient protection for the future. For example, we do charge the municipalities with the proper debt charges, capital and interest charges. We charge them of course for the power purchased, for operation and maintenance, for contingencies and obsolescence, for sinking fund and for depreciation. Once those items have been met then the balance goes back to the municipalities.

Let us make that abundantly clear. They have at the Hydro what they call the 13th Bill. All I wish to say is I wish that my creditors, including my Bank Manager, Mr. Pugsley, would send me the same type of bill. Throughout the year we bill the municipalities once a month. We make sure as all good creditors should, that we collect a sufficient amount each month to guarantee that at the end of the year we will not be short. So we send out what we call the 13th Bill and the 13th Bill is usually accompanied by a cheque for thousands of dollars. In fact, our anticipation is that on last year's operations we shall send to the municipalities some $3,199,000 in the 13th Bill.

So, Mr. Pugsley, please remember when you send the bill out from the Bank of Commerce to me, make it in the form of a cheque. I won't mind at all.

And Loftus Reid, the Chairman of the Toronto Hydro--I noticed he was smiling very broadly. Well, Toronto hasn't done badly by the 13th bill. Let me assure you of that. I find over a period of fourteen years the credits on the 13th bills have amounted to $2,175,000, and the debits to $606,600. In other words, we have returned to the City of Toronto some $1,568,000 by the medium of the 13th bills. I think it is a wonderful operation and I think we can look with pride upon the financial operations of this Commission.

When we look at the actual results of the work of the Hydro-Electric Power Commission over the years and through the municipalities and the Municipal Boards we do find an amazing picture.

Well, we are talking about reducing debt, and every time Art Lascelles talks about reducing the debt of the City of Toronto most of you feel that in some way, shape or form your taxes are going to come down, but the actual fact is at the end of this year, Arthur's borrowing margin will be the highest it has ever been in the history of the City of Toronto--some $44,000,000, didn't I tell the people some months ago over my broadcast? But unfortunately the tax rate is not going down this year.

When I say that I am not being sarcastic with regard to my friend, the present Mayor. He is doing a tremendous job, a good job. He had unexpected matters to be dealt with and personally, knowing something about the City Hall, and knowing something about the tax rate, I would say, Mr. Lascelles, your Mayor has done a tremendous job during the last three weeks and he deserves the hearty congratulations of the people of this city on the outcome.

But when we look at Hydro we can show that the advances that have been made have actually brought to the people of this province real benefit. For example, if you look at the City of Toronto you will find that the cost per kilowatt hour in 1913 amounted to 4.4 cents. It dropped in 1917 to 2.7 cents. In 1925 it was 1.8 cents; in 1930 it was 1.5 cents; in 1940 it was 1.2 cents, and in 1946 it amounted to 0.98 cents, just a little under 1 cent per kilowatt hour in this City for domestic power, as against four times that figure, 4.4 cents, back in 1913.

Commercial load--and I know your President will be greatly interested in this--in 1913 amounted to 3.8 cents; in 1917 it was 2.3 cents; in 1930 it was again 2.3 cents; in 1940 it was 1.6 cents, and in 1946 it was 1.22 cents.

In other words, 1.22 cents per kilowatt hour for commercial power in this city as against 3.8 cents in 1913 and 2.3 cents in 1917. A tremendous drop in the cost of electric power in this city. It is about the only thing that had dropped, I realize that, but it has dropped and great advantage has been given to the people of this Province.

Now, Gentlemen, something was said about the failure of power in certain places in the month of February. Fortunately, or otherwise, I happened to find myself at the United States Mayors' Convention at New York City at that time, so I assure you I had nothing to do with it, one way or the other. I didn't know anything about it until the reporters started to call me at New York and ask for my comments. That is one feature about public life that we all find. A man in public life is expected to give a snap opinion on any given subject without any thought of the actual facts. He is expected to give an opinion, isn't he, Kent? He is expected to give it immediately, with no study of the actual facts. When I told them in New York that I certainly would not comment that was indeed an awful shock and surprise. However, be that as it may, many questions have been put to me and probably have been put to you.

The outcome is rather interesting when you actually study this question of power shortage, and there are still many, many people who certainly do not understand the reason for the power shortage. So many people have said to me, "What difference does it make?" In fact right outside in the anteroom, one man said to me, "So many people are still saying, what in the world difference does it make if yon turn on a little power? You can't store energy."

Now, we can't store energy. That is right. But we can store that which produces energy, and we can store the water, and the great difficulty, of course, as you gentlemen all know, is that in the month of February and the month of January and during the winter months there is a tremendous depletion of water resources throughout the northern part of this province and the northern part of Quebec, and particularly this year when there was so little rainfall last summer in that province, and also because of the fact that there was so little snow this winter.

Actually I have had to change my mind. It used to be if we had a wonderful dry spell in the summer with no rain in July and August I would be very happy. I would say, "My, I think it is a wonderful summer." Nowadays I know what I am going to say, "Oh, my, isn't this a terrible summer? People are enjoying themselves, true. But what a headache Dick Hearn and Mamby and Otto Holden are going to have next winter."

And so, Gentlemen, feeling kindly disposed toward these three gentlemen and the members of the Commission, I shall certainly feel very sorry if we have a very dry summer during the coming months.

I was wondering about this ballroom, actually, so I did ask that the information be given to me. This room has a total connected load of 17 kilowatts. The quantity of energy used in one and one-half hours is 25 kilowatt hours. This energy generated at Chats Falls would require the use of 161,500 gallons of water to produce the energy necessary to light this room for one and one-half hours.

Last night, incidentally, I was at the hockey game. It was a wonderful game and a wonderful over-time, more particularly. But I was looking at the lights in the Maple Leaf Gardens and trying to figure out in my own amateurish way just how much water was required, so I did put the question, and I find that Maple Leaf Gardens use 108 kilowatts to illuminate the ice surface. If this is used two hours in a game, as it was last night, a total of 216 kilowatt hours is used. Now, if that power had to come from Chats Falls, we would need 1,400,000 Imperial gallons of water each minute to produce this energy.

The Maple Leaf Gardens used during November, 1947, a total of 170,000 kilowatt hours, or an average of 6800 kilowatt hours each day for 25 days. If this energy had to be produced at Chats Falls, 44,000,000 gallons of water would be required each day.

Compare that with the total pumping of the pumping station of the City of Toronto and you will find that that happens to be one-half day's pumping at the pumping plant of this city. Right now we are pumping about 85,000,000 gallons of water per day. Well, you need 44,000,000 gallons of water each day to light the Maple Leaf Gardens last November.

I mention Chats Falls for a purpose, because although we do get our basic power from Niagara and from the St. Lawrence, yet the variations in these days are coming from Chats Falls. You can imagine the difficulties, the peak load difficulties throughout the day when we must call upon Chats Falls. The flow in the Ottawa River this week I think is about 40,000 cubic feet per second. Just about ten days ago it was only 20,000 cubic feet per second. Just imagine the tremendous drop and when you need water in the quantity that I have mentioned to produce the power for one single solitary building.

Last Sunday I visited the Queenston-Chippewa plant at Queenston. The guages there told me that some 15,000 cubic feet of water was passing through per second, producing about 350 kilowatts at the moment I was there, or about 468,000 horsepower. This meant that on that day, last Sunday, some 8,100,000,000 cubic feet of water passed through that plant.

You say, what is that in terms of what we use in Toronto? Well, it is one hundred times as much as the City of Toronto pumps in any one day. Just imagine, that amount must flow to produce the 468,000 horsepower.

The Royal York Hotel, for example, uses about 21,000 kilowatt hours in the average day. At Chats Falls we would need 135,660,000 Imperial gallons of water to produce that energy-about one and one-half times as much as our Water Works Department uses in that day.

I am quite satisfied if the people of this province actually realized the tremendous waste in electric power that is going on each and every day, they would certainly cut down on the use of electric power. If we could get rid of the waste then I am sure we wouldn't have to worry about the cuts in the future.

For example, how many of us realize if a tap leaks at one drop per second that tap leak is equivalent to some 6 to 8 Imperial gallons per day. On the other hand, one 100 watt lamp operating for 24 hours and supplied from Chats Falls requires 15,500 Imperial gallons per day.

It is hard to believe it, Colonel. It was hard for me to believe, and I requested that these figures be checked over. That is what we find.

And who here would allow a tap to leak all day long and all night long? But how many turn off the 100 watt lamps? Yet the waste from the tap only amounts to a matter of 6 to 8 Imperial gallons in a 24 hour period, but the absolute waste with a 100 watt lamp amounts to 15,500 Imperial gallons per day.

Let us examine this from another angle. Let us assume that there are 900,000 Hydro consumers in this province--if one per cent of these consumers waste 100 watts per 24 hours, the wastage of water would be 9000 x 15,500, or 139,500,000 Imperial gallons if supplied from Chats Falls.

Well, I went over certain other figures and there are some very amusing experiences at the Hydro. For example, I was talking to Dick Hearn one day about the experiences that the Hydro engineers have. You all remember last fall most of you did get up at six o'clock in the morning to hear the wedding of Her Royal Highness, Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten. Well, when you did get up you turned on the radio, you turned on the light, you turned on the stove to make coffee or tea or otherwise. What happened at the Hydro plant? The increase in the load amounted to 20,000 kilowatts.

The water required for that increased load if it were produced at Chats Falls--I say Chats Falls because we all know that at Niagara the water just rolls and rolls and rolls and it is a 24-hour peak service, that is peak service as far as water is concerned, at any event, but up at Chats Falls they must depend upon the flow of the Ottawa River-the water required at Chats Falls to supply this additional load for one-half hour is 65,000,000 gallons. 65,000,000 gallons of water for one-half hour the morning of that wedding.

Did I realize that last fall when I turned on my radio? No, I didn't. I wasn't connected with the Hydro at that tune. I didn't realize it.

Last Friday, for example, was a very dull clay in Toronto. The increase in energy consumption in this city on a dull day such as last Friday over a bright sunshiny day is from 400,000 to 500,000 kilowatt hours, or roughly, ten per cent. What does it mean in gallons? I speak in gallons because I, myself, can understand gallons. I know what a gallon is. I know the flow coming into Toronto. What does that mean in gallons, just last Friday? It means, on the basis of Chats Falls, 2,584,000,000 extra gallons of water. Just imagine-because it happened to be a dull day last Friday! Yes, we often forget and we often do not think.

Last Friday, on that very day, I visited the plant of the Frigidaire Corporation. I am not trying to give them advertising but I would like to give them credit, notwithstanding. I went up there and I saw what had been done to save power. The Frigidaire Corporation had on October, 1947, consumption of 936,000 kilowatt hours, and in keeping with a ten per cent reduction they were requested to conserve approximately 90,000 kilowatt hours per month, or 4,500 kilowatt hers per day.

By very careful planning--they took out about two-thirds of the lights, they took out the actual bulbs, they turned the motors off when the motors were not being used, and I was there at noon hour and I watched the men come back to work and I watched the chap as soon as the man was in place turn on the switches and away went the motors and along came the power that they used to have prior to October--well, they were able by careful planning to reduce their kilowatt consumption by 5,000 kilowatts per day. They were only requested to drop the 4,500 kilowatt hours but they actually did drop by 5,000 kilowatt hours per day.

They tell me that regardless of what we do about power in the future they are certainly not going back to the old state of affairs. They are going to conserve that power in the future, and if we all do that then of course we can get somewhere in cutting out the waste of electric energy.

Then again, the firm of Hinde & Dauche, of Trenton, saved sufficient Monday to Friday energy to permit Trenton to meet their 90 per cent quota without further reductions. Just imagine-one company! Great credit should be due to your President's Company and the company presided over by my friend Lou Winchell. Incidentally, they paid their employees, I see by this note, time and a half for Sundays and they donated that extra cost as part of their contribution to the overall programme. Thank you very much, Sir.

Then again, the General Motors plant in Oshawathey were able to effect approximately a 20 per cent reduction in their kilowatt hour consumption without lowering their output.

Now, Gentlemen, and Ladies and Gentlemen who possibly are listening to me, my hope is that the people of this province will realize that if we can cut down on the waste of electric energy, then our troubles will to a great extent disappear in the very near future. We can cut down by not allowing lights to burn needlessly.

I wonder about the hotels, for example. I wonder, quite frankly. I realize they have signs in the rooms, I realize that, but I realize this is what happens, and you have all had the same experience. The bell boy will take you to the room. What happens? He opens the door, he switches on the main light. Then he will walk over to the window, raise the window slightly, then walk to one lamp, turn that lamp on, walk to another lamp and turn that lamp on. Then he walks to the bathroom and turns on the bathroom light and he will say, "Well, Sir, is there anything else I can do for you?" After all is said and done, that will be done today, on this bright day. Needlessly, of course, but without thinking. The same chap would never for one moment think of walking in and turning on the cold water tap just so it can drip. He wouldn't think for a moment of doing that. That is actually what he is doing when the light switches on. He is actually causing a little more trouble for our General Manager and his staff and a little more trouble for the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario.

My hope is that if you have any questions, whether you are here at this meeting or wherever you are, if you have any questions concerning the operation of the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, I do hope you will realize that it is the citizens' business, and the citizen is entitled to information and the citizen will obtain information from his own and about his own system. It is my intention to start broadcasting on the first Monday of April at seven-forty-five. I shall be on a province-wide hookup at that time and I shall endeavour in that broadcast and subsequent reports to the people of this province to give them information concerning their own corporation, the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of the Province of Ontario.

I appreciate very much, Mr. President, the opportunity that has been mine of speaking to this group and speaking to the larger audience over the air. (Applause.)

Mr. Saunders was thanked by the President, Mr. Tracy E. Lloyd.