In 1906 Ontario Premier Sir Joseph P. Whitney heeded the call from business, industry and citizens for public power and created the Ontario Hydro-Electric Commission with former London mayor Adam Beck as its chairman. In those days Hydro was solely a distribution system, purchasing power from its municipal partners. Its first power station was built on the Severn River in 1914.

Over the next four decades Hydro developed the Queenston-Chippawa project on the Niagara River (later named Sir Adam Beck Niagara Generating Station No. 1), Beck 2, the St. Lawrence Power Project and numerous other hydraulic power stations throughout the province. By the end of the 1950s, Hydro turned to coal-fired thermal stations to meet the continually expanding demand for electricity. Since 1971, when the first Pickering reactor came into service, nuclear plants have become the workhorses of the system.

For most of this century Hydro has been one of the foundations of the Ontario economy, providing reliable, low cost electricity to the province. As we prepare for the next century, the new challenges of a rapidly changing world confront both the province and the utility.
 

The mission of Ontario Hydro is to help Ontario become the most energy efficient and competitive economy in the world and a leading example of sustainable development.

1992 marked the beginning of a new era for Ontario Hydro. The corporation had already created an Environment Division and set itself a corporate goal of being in the vanguard of environmental protection. It had embarked on an extensive energy efficiency program. And it had established an Aboriginal and Northern Affairs Branch to address long-standing issues.

But these improvements had been grafted onto a corporate structure whose foundation was laid in a less complicated, more predictable and distant past. The corporation is being fundamentally re-fashioned to meet the dramatically different needs of the 21st century: to make it more business-like, more open, more flexible, more sensitive to customer expectations and more competitive.

As an energy service company Ontario Hydro is expanding and diversifying programs to help customers in all sectors get more value for their energy dollar. Ontario Hydro is building new partnerships with industry, government and customers to help Ontario benefit from energy efficiency and renewable technologies. Hydro is also committed to helping Ontario become a world leader in energy efficiency, competitiveness and sustainable development.

In June 1992, the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro produced a historic international accord called Agenda 21 — an action plan that recognises the right of human beings and nations to pursue economic development while respecting the environmental needs of present and future generations. It is a blueprint for sustainable development.

The challenge the Earth Summit set before the world is to transform Agenda 21 into reality in the years and century ahead. If future generations are to have opportunity and fulfilment, it is the responsibility of organizations like Ontario Hydro to lead the way by becoming models of efficiency and environmental preservation to the world.

The people of Ontario Hydro accept that challenge.