By Staff
July 11, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
Well – that was easy,
Minister of Energy, Northern Development and Mines Greg Rickford in a statement late today said
“Hydro One Chief Executive Officer Mayo Schmidt is retiring from the company, effective immediately.
Mayo Schmidt, chief executive of Hydro One has resigned. As Hydro One’s top executive he received $6.2 million in salary in 2017.
“The Board of Directors of Hydro One has also informed us of their intent to step down from their positions through a managed process that will conclude before August 15.
“Given the critical importance of Hydro One to our province’s electricity system, our government will be closely engaging in the leadership transition at Hydro One to ensure the stability of the system is preserved and consumers are protected.”
And so they are gone and the Premier will be able to say that he has delivered on an election promise without lifting a finger.
The Minister has said: “We will play a key role in appointing the new Board, and will expect it to act in the public’s interest.
“Second, our government has prepared legislation that, if passed, will improve transparency and accountability at Hydro One. We will introduce this legislation during the upcoming sitting.
“After years of rising electricity bills, this is a step towards our main goal—bringing down electricity rates for all Ontarians. Help is here.”
Expect to see that Help is here tag line used frequently. From a political optics perspective it is brilliant.
Perhaps this is the post municipal election template for the necessary changes that need to be made in Burlington.
Schmidt has just won the lottery. Contracts are normally enforceable through the courts so that this may not be the end of the story; it is likely that some lawyers will get the ex-CEO his contract severance and he will become the $10 million dollar man.
The $400K apparently was NOT severance, but present value of “retirement benefits” (not including pension).
I wonder what was said to the CEO of Hydro One to get him to ‘Retire’ and thus only take a $400K severance payout instead of his $10million dollars payout if he was ‘fired’.
I assume his pension is worth more than $10M… The $400k will buy a new boat.
Now if Burlington Hydro can be accountable for their outride lies and scams. To tired to write the full story tonight but stay tuned.