November 15, 2002

PRESS RELEASE – LOCAL MEDIA

OTTAWA RIVER POWER CORPORATION

Contact: Murray Moore, President


Over the past few days, we have been criticized for policies and local cost of power.  At this point in time, a word of explanation is in order to our customers. 

As a company owned by the citizens of the community, the Board of Directors and management have been delegated responsibilities of serving our customers in order to keep power costs as low as possible.

In an attempt to do this, Ottawa River Power Corporation must exercise due diligence with the collection of accounts in an attempt to minimize the write-offs at the end of the year.

For the first time in the history of hydro, we have been required to post prudentials, based on a three-month hydro bill, to Hydro One for the power that is consumed by the City of Pembroke.
This, in itself, is a substantial increase in the cost of supplying power to our customers.

As a result, a more stringent deposit and collection policy had to be initiated. Our policies are initiated to protect the shareholder, the ratepayers and our customers.  If a customer fails to pay an account, this cost is then passed on in increased rates to the balance of the consumers.

We appreciate the concerns; however, it is incumbent on the utility to respect the needs of the general public until such time as legislation is passed otherwise. In the interim, we urge and trust that our legislators will practice due diligence in setting legislation.