Ontario Electricity Industry
Ontario Electricity Financial Corporation (OEFC), a Crown agency, is the legal continuation of Ontario Hydro and is responsible for the management of that corporation’s debt and other liabilities that were not transferred to successor companies as part of the restructuring of Ontario Hydro in 1999, including the administration of certain power purchase agreements with non-utility generators. As at March 31, 2023, OEFC had total debt of $13.6 billion (2022, $14.8 billion). $10.6 billion of OEFC’s debt as at March 31, 2023 (2022, $11.1 billion) is held by the Province and included in total debt and other liabilities.
Ontario Hydro’s successor companies include Ontario Power Generation Inc. (OPG), a generation business wholly owned by the Province, and Hydro One Inc., a transmission and distribution business. Hydro One Inc. is now a subsidiary of Hydro One Limited (“Hydro One”). Following an initial public offering on November 5, 2015 and subsequent share sales in 2016 and 2017, the Province now holds about 47.1% of the common shares in Hydro One.
The other Ontario Hydro successor companies are the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), the electricity system and market operator, and the Electrical Safety Authority, which is responsible for electricity safety inspection.
Pursuant to various transfer orders (“Transfer Orders”), assets of the former Ontario Hydro were transferred to OPG, Hydro One Inc. and the IESO in exchange for debt. The Province assumed a portion of OPG’s and Hydro One Inc.’s debt in exchange for equity, in order to provide them with commercially acceptable capital structures. As of March 31, 2023, OEFC held notes receivable in the amount of $2.5 billion from OPG, $135��million from the IESO and $6.8 billion from the Province. OEFC provided indemnities, guaranteed by the Province, to OPG and Hydro One Inc., in connection with the Transfer Orders; those indemnities were terminated as of May 31, 2006 and October 31, 2015 respectively.
As of April 1, 1999, the Ministry of Finance estimated the amount of OEFC’s debt and other liabilities that, in the opinion of the Minister of Finance, could not reasonably be serviced and retired in a competitive electricity market (the “stranded debt”) to be approximately $20.9 billion. OEFC’s unfunded liability is the net deficiency of OEFC’s assets over its liabilities. The opening unfunded liability of $19.4 billion as at April 1, 1999 represented the stranded debt adjusted for $1.5 billion of additional assets transferred to OEFC. OEFC’s financial position was an accumulated surplus of $1.1 billion, as at March 31, 2023 (as the value of OEFC’s assets exceeded its liabilities).
As part of the restructuring of the electricity sector, a long-term plan provides for certain dedicated revenue streams to service and retire OEFC’s debt and other liabilities. These revenue streams are established under the Electricity Act, 1998 (“Electricity Act”) and include payments-in-lieu of property taxes and federal and provincial corporate income taxes currently paid by OPG and the municipal electricity utilities. As a result of the initial public offering on November 5, 2015, Hydro One is no longer subject to payments-in-lieu of federal and provincial corporate income taxes and is subject to normal corporate income taxes. Hydro One remains subject to paying payments-in-lieu of property tax. The Minister of Finance has legislative authority and is required to make payments to the OEFC equal to the amount of provincial corporate tax payable by Hydro One Inc. under the Taxation Act, 2007.
The Province, as shareholder, is eligible to receive dividend payments on its shares in OPG and Hydro One. Pursuant to the government’s discretionary commitment to keep electricity income in the electricity sector, the Province’s proportionate share of the cumulative combined net income of OPG and Hydro One in excess of the Province’s cumulative interest expenditure on its investment in the companies has been allocated to OEFC since 1999, including up to March 31, 2019 for purposes of debt retirement (electricity sector dedicated income). Beginning fiscal 2019-20, the Province determined that electricity sector dedicated income will be limited to the net income of OPG in excess of the government’s annual interest cost of its investment in that company, on a cumulative basis, excluding the net income from Hydro One in excess of the interest cost of its investment in that company.
Under the Electricity Act, a Debt Retirement Charge (DRC) of 0.7 cents per kilowatt hour was levied on most Ontario electricity users and payable to OEFC. Prior to January 1, 2016, the DRC was payable by most electricity consumers. As of January 1, 2016, residential electricity users were exempted from paying the DRC. The government introduced legislation, passed on December 10, 2015, the Budget Measures Act, 2015 to legislate a fixed end-date for the DRC of April 1, 2018, for commercial, industrial and all other users.
The Electricity Act and the Ontario Energy Board Act, 1998 set out the legislative framework for Ontario’s electricity market and restructuring of Ontario Hydro. Open, non-discriminatory access to transmission and distribution systems commenced May 1, 2002. Since 2005, electricity prices payable by consumers reflect a blend of contract prices, regulated prices for OPG’s output from its price-regulated nuclear and hydroelectric plants, and market prices. Regulated prices for OPG are approved by the Ontario Energy Board (OEB). The OEB also sets the commodity price payable by low volume and certain other specified consumers under the Regulated Price Plan (RPP). The IESO finances any differences between prices under the RPP and the actual supply cost of electricity, with any shortfall or surplus to be recovered or returned through the setting of RPP prices in the following period.
In May 2017, the Ontario Fair Hydro Plan Act, 2017 (the Fair Hydro Act) was enacted. The components of the plan to reduce current electricity prices included initiatives provided for in the Fair Hydro Act as well as other policy initiatives including providing a rebate on electricity bills equal to the eight per cent provincial portion of the Harmonized Sales Tax under the Ontario Rebate for Electricity Consumers (OREC), which was effective January 1, 2017; funding the cost of the Ontario Electricity Support Program and most of the Rural or Remote Rate Protection program from general government funds instead of from ratepayers; and an additional reduction in current electricity bills for eligible residential, small business and farm customers, commencing July 1, 2017. The reduction (referred to as the global adjustment refinancing) provided for in the Fair Hydro Act was to be recovered from specified electricity ratepayers in future years (referred to as the Clean Energy Adjustment).
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