Aug. 8, 2002. 01:00 AM - Public stuck with bill for Hydro One yacht sponsorship
By Tony Van Alphen
business reporter
Ontario taxpayers will be stuck with the $360,000 cost of Hydro One's sponsorship of a racing yacht, the government says.
A spokesperson for Energy Minister Chris Stockwell said yesterday that although the Hydro One interim board would like to terminate the three-year sponsorship, the expense would be too high.
"It would cost more money to end the sponsorship than it would to see it through," said Diana Arajs, press secretary for Stockwell.
Arajs said the government will not be renewing the sponsorship for the 40-foot yacht when it expires.
Her comments come after Stockwell told the Legislature in May that the "yacht will go" as opposition MPPs hammered the government on executive compensation and spending at the giant public power transmission company.
Sean Conway, Liberal co-energy critic, said yesterday Stockwell clearly suggested the government wanted an immediate end to the "extravagant" spending at Hydro One, including the yacht sponsorship.
Former Hydro One president and chief executive officer Eleanor Clitheroe, who is an avid sailor, approved the sponsorship of the yacht.
Hydro One's interim board fired Clitheroe last month over what chairman Glen Wright called "inappropriate" expenses.
They included $330,000 for limousine services during the last three years, $174,000 for a new auto annually, a $40,000 car allowance every year, a $40,000 home renovation by a Hydro One contractor — which she later repaid — and thousands of dollars in club memberships.
As CEO, Clitheroe received $2.2 million annually and had a provision for $6.6 million in severance under certain conditions.
Clitheroe, a former deputy minister of finance, said Hydro One approved all her expenses and she plans to sue the utility for wrongful dismissal.
The Hydro One board resigned in May after the government, the utility's shareholder, ordered a rollback in compensation for executives. The government replaced the directors with an interim board.
Hydro One defended the sponsorship of the racing yacht, called Defiant, after public revelations about it this spring.
The utility said the sponsorship would raise the company's profile while moving from a public utility into a privately owned corporation in a deregulated industry. The government has shelved its plans since then to spinoff Hydro One.
Opposition MPPs called the yacht sponsorship "outrageous," a waste of taxpayer's money and indicative of a utility whose spending was out of control.
Stockwell, who was unavailable for comment yesterday, agreed at the time that the government and public utility should not have been involved in sponsorship of a yacht.
Arajs said the government has instructed the Hydro One board to review all sponsorships. Hydro One spends about $1 million annually on sponsorship of various events.
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