Bill 75 And The Auditor General’s 2011 Report: Lessons Not Learned

Introduction

Bill 75 has, as its principal objective, the merger of the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) and the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) into the Ontario Electricity System Operator (OESO). The Bill raises a number of interesting governance questions, chief among them how conflicts between the procurement and market operations functions of the organization are to be managed. Subsection 5(3) of the Bill, which requires the board of directors of the OESO to take steps to ensure that there is an effective separation of the market operations, on the one hand, and the procurement and contract management activities, on the other hand, illustrates the problem. How the board of directors carries out its governance obligations, while supervising two divisions which must keep their operations secret from one another, will be an interesting challenge.