It won’t take much convincing for the people of Muskoka to believe that we are one of the worst areas in Ontario for power outages. In fact, it’s a title we wish we didn’t hold.

As Mother Nature ravaged the area last week with high winds, people were sitting on the edge of their seats, just waiting for the lights to go out. And go out they did, or for some people, still are.

As of Tuesday morning, according to the Hydro One website, there were 38 customers in the Bracebridge area without hydro. A far cry from the tens of thousands reported at the end of the day last Wednesday, but disturbing just the same. And even more frightening is that the people still without electricity more than likely have been minus power for nearly a week.

For anyone who has had to deal with Hydro One, it is sometimes an exercise in frustration, and you think it would be easier if you pulled a little more clout. Let’s say, for example, if you were the president and CEO of Lakeland Power, Chris Litschko.

In November Litschko wrote a letter to acting president and CEO of Hydro One Laura Formosa, to bring to light the unacceptable number of outages in Lakeland’s service area.

He explained that from Aug. 12 to Sept. 14, 2007, Lakeland, which receives electricity from Hydro One’s Muskoka transformer station in Utterson, lost the feed on eight separate occasions for a total of 17 hours.

Litschko also noted that these outages are widespread, not just affecting isolated areas in Muskoka. And while the district does have some rugged terrain and forested areas that do hinder the service, particularly in a storm, Litschko urged Hydro One to not use it as an excuse for poor service. Litschko also noted that Lakeland Power does take some of the blame for the outages.

While Hydro One’s response, or lack thereof, does not come as a surprise, it is indicative of just how large the issue is. It will take a long time before the lights come on at Hydro One.

Daniele Gauvin, Hydro One spokesperson, indicated that Hydro One is developing a “long-term plan to make the local system more robust and improve local reliability,” but would not comment further. In a reply to Litschko’s letter, Hydro One states that more forestry patrols are being put in place and some other work is being done to its feeder lines to make them more reliable.

This response is just one of the reasons people are no longer putting their trust in hydro, and the sale of generators has seen a steep increase, most likely spurred on by the blackout of 2003. One thing holding many people back from getting off the grid is that the expense is prohibitive, no matter how many rebates the government offers.

Residents of Muskoka deserve better when it comes to its reliability on electricity, and Hydro One’s response is certainly not good enough. It leaves us to wonder if we are not the only ones in the dark.

KF