CANADA: INITIAL FALLOUT FROM THE BLACKOUT

C O N F I D E N T I A L OTTAWA 002354

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/18/2013
TAGS: PREL PGOV ENRG CA
SUBJECT: CANADA: INITIAL FALLOUT FROM THE BLACKOUT

Classified By: POLMINCOUNS BRIAN FLORA. REASON 1.5 (B) and (D).


1. (C) Summary: Residents of Ontario, with the exception of
some 50,000 public sector workers in Ottawa, were expected to
resume "normal" work routines on Monday. Businesses
throughout Ontario have been asked to cut energy consumption
in half over the next week as the province tries to recover
from last week's massive blackout. Meanwhile, finger
pointing within and between the federal (Liberal) and
provincial (Progressive Conservative) governments was in full
gear as the media sought to exploit miscommunication and
disarray in both bureaucracies. End summary.


2. (U) With power more or less restored over the weekend,
residents of Canada's most populous province (33 percent of
the national population) warily resumed work on Monday,
August 18. In Ottawa, 50,000 federal, provincial and
municipal public sector workers --except for emergency and
other essential services personnel--were ordered to stay home
"until further notice," part of an effort to halve the city's
power consumption until power is fully restored across the
province. In a live broadcast Sunday evening, Ontario
Premier Ernie Eves urged businesses to help avert rolling
blackouts through "reasonable and prudent and conservative"
energy consumption. Not all of the province's power stations
are back on line and authorities are concerned about the
possibility of over-taxing the still fragile electrical grids
throughout the province.


3. (SBU) Prime Minister Chretien, who remained in his home
riding of Shawinigan, Quebec, throughout the power failure,
was strongly criticized in the press and by members of his
own governing party for failing to demonstrate leadership. He
was due to set foot in Ontario today for the first time since
the crisis started, to participate in this week's annual
meeting of the Liberal Party Caucus in North Bay, northern
Ontario. The PM is drawing fire for his lack of visibility
in the present crisis and for too-hastily attributing the
power failure to a lightning strike on the U.S. Niagara
Mohawk power grid, prompting some Liberal MPs to call for his
early resignation. Defense Minister McCallum has been
criticized as well for adding to the public confusion in the
early stages of the outage by suggesting, also incorrectly,
that the failure involved a nuclear power plant in
Pennsylvania.


4. (C) Comment: Efforts to reach host government officials
about the power situation and the government's handling of
the crisis met with little success this first day back to
work. We will pass along new information as it comes
available.


5. (C) Comment continued: Though electric power is a
provincial responsibility, ordinary citizens and a number of
MPs have voiced fresh outrage over the apparent lack of
communication within the federal government throughout the
power crisis and the Prime Minister's disengagement. Such
expressions of disappointment are almost futile, however,
given the few months remaining in Chretien's political tenure
and his focus on pending retirement. Nonetheless, in view of
the already existing rifts within the Liberal Caucus (one
third oppose gay unions being pushed by the administration),
this week's annual meeting promises to be lively. End
comment.
CELLUCCI