Kingsville has two hydro providers: Hydro One for most of the area and E.L.K. for the town centres in Kingsville proper and Cottam. Kingsville residents and businesses endure an unreliable hydro service with unpredictable outages and frequent flickering. This causes financial loss, stress and concern. The bulk of the service concerns lie within the E.L.K. service area.
Background
E.L.K. was once owned by the towns of Essex, Lakeshore and Kingsville. In 2008 Kingsville and Lakeshore sold their shares to the Town of Essex who is now the sole shareholder.
The purchase agreement shows that Kingsville received $7,828,760.70 for our share of the utility. For more info on where those funds have been allocated visit Mistake on the Lake.
After several requests E.L.K. representatives came to our town council meeting on November 23, 2020 to address our concerns. You can view the live stream of Director Danelon and Operations Manager MacAulay providing an update regarding E.L.K. Energy Inc. operations, capital assets, and investment.
Hydro One Delegation
At the Association of Municipalities of Ontario August 2021 conference our mayor and a few members of council had a delegation with Hydro One’s Senior Manager of Community Relations and the District Lines Manager. We learned about four major current and planned investments in South-west Ontario. I’m not going to go into detail about the projects but basically the IESO has done some mid and long term planning and determined that our region (which includes Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent) needs two new stations that will see our current capacity go from 500MW to 2000MW by 2035 and that this increase is being driven primarily by greenhouse expansion in our region.
E.L.K. advised that service disruptions were expected as upgrades were being completed but this was not confirmed by Hydro One who stated that there are incentives to minimize disruptions and that reliability of supply is part of the IESO review. At this delegation Hydro One representatives agreed to arrange a separate meeting to discuss the power outages we’ve been experiencing so that we may learn more about the Hydro One system’s design and how it interconnects with E.L.K. Energy. This meeting is still pending.
Resolution
It is clear there is more work to be done and that the Town will have to take the lead on behalf of residents, business owners and developers. I have asked for the following resolution to be on our (September 27, 2021 deferred) first October meeting agenda and will ask Council for their support. Stay tuned…
Whereas the Town of Kingsville residents and businesses pay E.L.K. for electricity and are not receiving good value and service for payment.
And whereas. E.L.K. is a monopoly and customers have no ability to buy electricity elsewhere.
And whereas E.L.K. has frequent disruptions and outages that results in:
1) Economic hardship and losses to local businesses;
2) Personal hardship as homes and family lives are disrupted;
3) Loss and damage to electronic equipment; and
4) Stress and concern arising from uncertainty as to when the service can be relied upon.
And whereas we have experienced poor customer service with complaints and concerns unanswered and a seemingly uncaring and unresponsive ELK executive leadership, ELK Board of Directors, and Town of Essex which is the owner of ELK. We do not understand why the ELK executive leadership, ELK Board of Directors, and Town of Essex are unresponsive to customer concerns which have been raised by many individuals and business leaders.
And whereas the Town of Kingsville, along with its residents and local businesses, have been asking E.L.K. for responses to these concerns but has received no satisfactory reply, including such concerns as not being responsible to residents who have trees abutting E.L.K. hydro wires causing a safety concern.
And whereas developers in the Town of Kingsville have difficulty in getting subdivisions and buildings connected to the E.L.K. power supply and further have felt that their questioning about unreasonable delays have resulted in being “blacklisted” and facing reprisals from E.L.K. staff who seem to operate with impunity.
And whereas the Corporation of the Town of Kingsville has asked for a road use agreement (or similar agreement) which E.L.K. has ignored or refused to sign, contrary to industry standards, and which has resulted in hardship to the Town and risk of injury to residents as work has been undertaken by E.L.K. on Town property without regard to public safety, public notice and cooperation with the Town.
And whereas the Town of Essex must be accountable for E.L.K. and cannot simply take dividends without any expectation of delivering reliable service, good customer service and reasonably requiring E.L.K. to operate safely and cooperatively with the Town government within which it operates.
Therefore be it resolved that:
1. The Town of Kingsville asks the Town of Essex to require the E.L.K. executive leadership and E.L.K. Board of Directors to embark on a comprehensive review of supply of electricity, why its supply is unreliable, why E.L.K. is unresponsive to customer complaints and concerns and why E.L.K. won’t work with the Town of Kingsville on a road use agreement. The Town of Essex can do this through a unanimous shareholders declaration or similar resolution.
2. Failing satisfactory resolution from the Town of Essex and E.L.K. in regard to the items above within four months, that Administration bring a report to Council on options available to the Town to hold E.L.K. accountable including (but not limited to) a complaint or application to the Ontario Energy Board.
Kimberly DeYong 