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Orangeville wants increased Hydro dividends

June 12, 2025   ·   2 Comments

By JAMES MATTHEWS

The chairperson of Orangeville Hydro’s board of directors believes the utility is a very well-run distribution company.

“And it serves its customers efficiently and safely,” Gia DeJulio said during town council’s June 9 meeting. “Performance metrics are very high, especially when you compare it to the rest of the industry in Ontario.”

Orangeville and Grand Valley residents are the beneficiaries of that optimum performance, she said.

That assessment was backed up by Rob Koekkoek, Orangeville’s Hydro’s president and CEO, who said that one of the greatest activities last year was the continued strong reliability statistics compared to the historical provincial average.

Its cost of service rate was approved by the Ontario Energy Board – the first filing in a decade – he said.

“It was a major undertaking and we’re really proud of the staff for their accomplishment of that,” Koekkoek said.

The company has three regulated price plans available for customer use: A time of use rate, a tiered rate, and the ultra-low overnight rate. He said residents can use an online calculator on the company’s website to find the best plan for their use.

Hydro has paid Orangeville more than $22 million since 2000 and Grand Valley has received about $562,000 since 2007. Orangeville got about $478,000 last year, while Grand Valley received a $28,000 dividend payment.

Amy Long, the company’s CFO, said customers saw a distribution rate increase that started May 2024.

The operating expenses are the daily costs of operation, maintenance, and administration, which are comprised of labour, material and equipment, purchased services, and the depreciation of assets.

All that’s paid with money charged to customers.

The greatest expense for Orangeville Hydro was administrative and general costs, she said.

Deputy Mayor Todd Taylor said his concern is the organization’s financials.

“I (couldn’t) care less what your debt is,” he said. “All those things, that’s your business. What I care about is the dividend that comes to me. The dividend was $543,000 in 2021. We haven’t come close to that since.”

That indicates a negative return on investment, he said.

“I would like you to be consistent in your dividend,” Taylor said. “Maybe it’s not in the mandate, but I would almost suggest if it was mid-year I’d be looking at my financials and going oh my gosh we can’t take on any more debt or we can’t do this or I can’t hire this person because it’s going to hurt the revenue to my shareholder which is the town and Grand Valley.”

He suggested the least dividend that should be paid is the same figure that had been delivered the previous year.

“But the reality is that’s not even great because that would be the next thing I would complain about is that you don’t grow,” he said. “I want my dividend to grow year over year over year.”

He said the board needs to investigate ways by which revenue can be grown with existing equipment and assets.

“To have it fluctuate like it does, it doesn’t do me any good,” Taylor said. “That means all these people in here have to pay more money in the year that you don’t pay me the money that I need.”

Koekkoek said he’ll take Taylor’s concern to the board and ultimately return to the shareholders with feedback.

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