Enersource president to lead division of giant utility formed in merger with Mississauga and five cities

Mississauga.com
July 29, 2016
Roger Belgrave

Enersource President and CEO Peter Gregg has been appointed President (designate) for an arm of the giant electricity distributor created in a merger to buy Hydro One Brampton and form the second largest municipally-owned electric utility company in North America.

Mississauga is partnering with Markham, Vaughan, Barrie, Hamilton and St. Catharines to merge utility companies Enersource, PowerStream and Horizon.

Mississauga is the majority shareholder of Enersource.

Markham, Barrie and Vaughan are shareholders in PowerStream. Hamilton and St. Catharines own Horizon.

MergeCo is the temporary name of this new utility amalgamation.

Gregg has been named President (designate) of the MergeCo Innovation, Growth and Corporate Services Company.

That part of the business will be located at the current PowerStream headquarters in Vaughan.

Current President and CEO of PowerStream, Brian Bentz, has been appointed President and CEO (designate) of the MergeCo Holdings Company, which is based at the current Enersource headquarters in Mississauga.

Horizon Utilities President and CEO Max Cananzi has been appointed President (designate) of the MergeCo Local Distribution Company, which will be headquartered at the existing Horizon Utilities corporate office in Hamilton.

The merger and the purchase of Hydro One Brampton are still awaiting Ontario Energy Board (OEB) approval, expected later this year.

Gregg, Bentz and Cananzi are expected to officially assume their responsibilities once OEB approval is complete.

The appointments were made by a transitional committee chaired by current Enersource Board Chair Norm Loberg and made up of proportional shareholder representation from the municipal partners and Borealis, an investment management arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) that has a stake in Enersource. 

MergeCo has agreed to purchase Hydro One Brampton from the Ontario government for $607 million.

Mississauga is projected to receive $600 million in dividends over the next 25 years from this utility amalgamation deal.

Hydro One acquired Hydro One Brampton from the City of Brampton in 2001.

There remains plenty of political and public opposition to the Ontario government’s selloff of public assets such as Hydro One and Hydro One Brampton.