Yours to Command (1961)

[Music] my name name is Abel Mack I've been sitting here wondering what I'm doing at another rape payers meeting when you've been to as many as I have they all begin to look and sound alike and yet I have the feeling that this one will be different at least for me uh maybe it's the flavor of what has already gone before now for instance U Jed Oliver it's all steamed up over the proposed route of a new Township Road outside of town sure this new road is coming through regardless of how I feel about it I don't suppose it matters to the rest of you where it comes through but it matters to me that new road could just about slice my farm in half and Raa gray annoyed about some road work that isn't being done oh I'm sure the public works department has us in mind as you say Ralph they've been intending to pave our street for 6 months now well their good intentions may be all right for the road to hell but I want some proper Paving in front of my house and Tom Fuller manager of the local Plastics plant going on a bit about a new school edition mind you I don't object to the new edition eventually we're going to have to have it but for the moment can't we shift some of our new youngsters over to the West End School temporarily no denying this was the Lively rate payers meeting on most still I had a feeling there was more to come and it did ever so casually now I'd like to introduce our Municipal Utilities manager Mr David Spencer I've invited him here tonight on behalf of hydro there I expect this about the new Hydro station we were putting in and so it was apparently young Dave explained where the new station would be located and how it would be designed and built and landscaped to fit as attractively as possible into its particular location well nobody seemed to care really one way or the other about it and then Jed Oliver suddenly came to life again yes sir what's it for sir what is the new Hydro station for looks pretty enough but what's it going to do oh it'll be a Transformer station sir well would you mind telling me what a trans Transformer station does of course you're the gentleman with the farm right H half a farm in a few months maybe but what's that got to do with it well would take a typical day on your farm from morning until night you probably use electrical power in your farm there are more than 400 different ways Imperial farmers use electricity to lighten their work and make it more productive today yet no matter how much electric power you use or how many different ways you use it you can only use it at all in small amounts that's either 115 or 230 volts but we generate the power at 13,800 [Music] volt and we can only send it over long distances efficiently at very high voltage like 115,000 and 230,000 volts it's like any housewife buying just a few slices of boiled ham she can really use at one [Music] time but it can only be economical for either one of you when you Market milk in Big [Music] Lots between your marketing and the housewives marketing of course there are the intermediate steps of Distributing and packaging ing for home use well between our generating and transmitting power and your using it there are Big Marketing gaps too these gaps are filled by Transformer and distribution stations they make Progressive voltage adjustments to distribute the power and the voltage size you need on your farm that's what this new Hydro station will do make more usable power available to you folks out there in that fast growing barston Way section kind of interesting at that so Jed found it suddenly kind of interesting I remember when Jed's grandfather farmed his place and how hard he worked at it too now all Jed does is push a button and that takes care of all the feed for all his beef animals in just a few minutes so I was glad Jed found it interesting of course I would expect everyone to look at it the way I do and least of all Tom Fuller Ralph oh Ralph please folks can we have a little more quiet we'll soon be through I'm sure now Tom I wanted to ask Mr Spencer a question if it's all right certainly sir who's going to pay for this new station us yes ultimately but what you may not realize is that you've already paid for part of it what do you mean well well maybe I can explain it this way now a portion of your hydro bill is placed in a fund to help Finance Capital expansion such as this new station we're talking about this is the advantage of the hydro Enterprise what would normally be profits from your utilities operation are used to improve electric service to the customer supposing the fund isn't large enough well in that case additional funds could be raised through the issue of debentures which would be amortized over a period of years but wouldn't our rates go up to to cover the cost not necessarily the revenue from the additional power supplied through the new installation would offset its cost well young Dave had a tough question to answer there but he handled it well I thought he explained how from its small beginning in 196 Hydro has always belonged to the people of Ontario [Music] this hydro system has been made possible through the cooperation of local utilities which service the people in their own municipalities he pointed out how this group of cooperating local Hydro commissions has grown from 14 to more than 350 today there is virtually no hamlet in Ontario too small to have its own Hydro command Mission and no City too big each local utility is geared to the needs of its own people at the head of this Hydro family so to speak is Ontario hydro which supplies the power distributed by the local utilities and those people who use the hydro no matter how little or how much are its real owners Hydro belongs to all the people it's theirs to command why because the rivers and lakes of all Ontario belong to the people and it's the water of these same rivers and lakes that provides the basic source of most of our electric power in Ontario Ontario Hydro supplies its customers the local Utility Commission with this power at cost and each local utility in turn sells the power at cost to its own customers the people that's why the people of Ontario enjoy electric power at rates among the lowest on the North American [Music] continent that includes commercial users users and Industrial users and the farmer and his wife well that seems to make sense I think it does it's very different from the usual power company setup and very successful oh I guess it works all right thank you well it's nice when someone like Tom Fuller suddenly discovers hydro and concludes that it's working all right as oh hyro hasn't been working all right for the people of Ontario for 50 years and more helping people like Tom Fuller and his Plastics plant with all its jobs or the Furniture Factory that really put this town on the map or any of the other Industries and businesses that came in here to grow with this town and the hydro but of course that's just my thinking Tom Fuller doesn't have the same reasons neither does JED Oliver or any of the good Heavens having the floor once I surely flipped them all Mr chairman Ralph the chair recognizes R gray well you don't need to be so darn formal Ralph I just want to ask Mr Spencer one little question about Hydro what did you want to ask Mrs Gray well I have a sister in the states her electric bills are about double mine yes so I guess what you've been saying about power at cost and no Hydro profits and so forth must be all true well of course that's the whole operating basis of hydro a kind of public trust but isn't Hydro a business also a very big business Mrs Gray taking together the whole group of cooperating Hydro organizations in Ontario we serve nearly 2 million customers every day I see was that your question Rita no Ralph I don't know really how to phrase it but I'll ask Mr Spencer anyway I hope I can answer it well I don't know too much about business but I don't see how Hydro stays in business I'm not sure that's a proper question Rita allor right Ralph I think I know what you mean Mrs gr yes are you really asking how with everything else going up so much these days Hydro manages to maintain your power at such a low cost yes I guess so well of course there are many factors involved many factors indeed and young Dave covered a good share of them for instance hydro's emphasis on hydraulic generating stations right from the beginning to supply our BAS load power needs at the lowest possible cost then turning to steam generated power as needed for Peak power demands maintaining farsighted building policies looking ahead now to the need for even more supplementary steam plants in the near future and nuclear power [Music] developments and ehb extra high voltage transmission to bring in still more lowcost power from presently remote Water Resources constant research saves money too frequently devising new operating methods and materials that provide better performance at lower cost again hydro's modern helicopter Fleet saves Hydro users millions of dollars in more efficient line Patrol troubleshooting and maintenance [Music] hydro's industrial counseling section often saves the industrial customer time and money through more efficient use of hydroelectric power Dave mentioned other factors too then he came to the most important one at least to me but more than anything else hyra was people people pretty much like you folks but people who take a special kind of pride in their work and that's my main reason for being here tonight because that special kind of pride is probably hydro's and Ontario's greatest asset where do you find it throughout the hydro family and every hydro line crew ever called out to restore power in an [Music] emergency in every controll room team across Ontario where regardless of emergencies responsibility for maintaining continuous power is never [Music] ending in the thousands of people who have been in the hydro family for 25 years or more and in thousands more just starting their Hydro [Music] careers in still more thousands of people you rarely see or hear about engineers secretaries managers all doing their jobs quietly and efficiently day after day [Music] young or old it doesn't much matter people that work for hydro work for all Imperial we really work for you we and hydro are literally yours to command I should think not young men many a time I've have come into the hydro to pay my bill and gone away with the feeling that I must be working for them and another thing I don't mind telling you it's a sorry thing when the hydro inspector comes around and makes you rip out wiring in a new home because it isn't up to some fancy code of him really sir I have to know the circumstances order order please order Mr chairman Mr chairman if you please order please order the chair recognized is able M thank you Ralph you don't mind da of course not able I've been sitting back there listening and finding it hard sometimes to believe my ears in all the years I worked for the municipal Hydro here I never realized that so many knew so little about so much affecting their very lives and the life and fact of all Ontario now you madam who spoke about the way you felt when you left the hydro [Music] office while our higho people aren't always perfect perhaps you could have been a bit Happ happier that day and you sir who complained about the hydro inspector not passing you new house wiring faulty wiring or improper insulation or insufficient circuits to carry the load are potential hazards Now isn't it better that the electrical contractor work with Hydro inspectors to ensure the safe and efficient use of electricity inadequate wiring for today's modern electrical living is inconvenient to say the least and you Jed Oliver maybe you're too young to remember but I'm not Hydro has taken much of the tedium and backbreaking labor of farm management away from you today have you ever stopped to think about the way your father and his father before him struggled along in that farm of yours and Tom Fuller you're probably not alone in taking Hydro for granted he been with us praise God a good long time now have you ever stopped to wonder where Ontario would be today industrially without the hydro and Rita gray bless you child you finally asked a very key question how does Hydra do it well the chances are there's no one person at all of Ontario who can answer that question for you young Dave Spencer here tried admirably and I think did very well but uh nobody anywhere can really explain Hydro you see Hydro isn't just a cool efficiently operating mechanism it has a heart too [Music] [Music] what if that heart should suddenly stop beating it never will of course and why not because Hydro is all of us and all of us all over Ontario are Hydro as we grow Hydra grows and Ontario grows and in fact all of our beloved Canada grows to New Wealth and stature and well-being with every passing year I had hoped or rather I expected that you all appreciated that but I'm I'm sorry I popped off able and M darn you come back here what did I forget a point of order no you just forgot this Abel the main reason Ralph invited me to this meeting tonight was to give you this not from Hydro but from all of us here maybe you've forgotten Abel but this would have been your 36th year with Hydro a lot of us here appreciate what you've done for us for the time and for hydro too we had a lot more to say but I think you already said it better well thank you all of you I guess right now I'm just like Hydro itself yours to command well for me this was a different kind of rap payers meeting how about you to late [Music]