(Communication dated December 10, 1999

from the President and Chief Executive Officer, Toronto Hydro,

addressed to the City Clerk.)

City Council, at its meeting of October 26 and 27, 1999, and regarding the New York State Law Suit against Mid-western coal-fired power plants, requested Toronto Hydro to report to the December Council meeting, indicating whether our supplier, Ontario Power Generation, is buying electricity from any of the 17 coal-fired plants identified in the law suit.

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) has advised that over 70 percent of its energy is generated by emission-free hydroelectric and nuclear stations. The electricity grids in Canada and the United States are interconnected and are governed by the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC). OPG is a member of NERC as are all of the utilities in the neighbouring States, including those in New York. OPG has advised that it contracts to buy and sell electricity with other companies through this interconnected market on a regular basis. The contracts specify the amounts of electricity to be supplied, not the source of the electricity.

Due to the interconnected nature of the system, OPG advises that purchasers are unable to know which specific plants have generated the electricity. However, over the past five years, the companies that own the targetted power plants have supplied approximately 0.03 percent of OPG's electricity sales. However, as noted above, OPG advises that it cannot determine the specific source of the generation.