Jessica McDonald, the powerful deputy minister in former premier Gordon Campbell’s government, is stepping into the hot-seat position as B.C. Hydro’s new CEO.
Her appointment comes as the utility grapples with major issues, including the controversial Site C dam project, a mounting debt and consumer backlash over rising rates.
McDonald will replace retiring CEO Charles Reid on July 14.
Energy Minister Bill Bennett on Thursday heralded McDonald’s extensive management experience and sharp negotiating expertise in both the public and private sectors.
“I have very positive experience personally, watching Jessica work with the public service when she was in that role,” said Bennett, who credited her with re-establishing some “pride in the public service.”
McDonald served as deputy minister to Campbell from 2005 to 2009, when she was head of the provincial civil service, which stood her in good stead with B.C. Hydro’s executive search committee. Bennett added that he also wanted to bring somebody into Hydro “from the outside” with experience managing a large organization.
B.C. Hydro critics, however, say McDonald is being “flung into the deep end” of a difficult job where her biggest challenge may be carving out a role that is independent of government interference .
“I’m sure she’s very capable,” said Jim Quail, a lawyer on energy policy, but he was a “bit surprised” that government didn’t select an executive with more experience in the complex issues of the electricity industry.
“It’s a hot seat politically, and it faces a great many problems that don’t have clear solutions,” said Quail, who was staff lawyer with Local 378 of the Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union, which represents Hydro employees.
The problems include dealing with the utility’s “enormous deferral accounts,” which were the subject of a critical auditor general’s report in 2011, rifts in its relationship with First Nations and balancing environmental issues related to its projects, Quail added.
“B.C. Hydro is a Crown corporation, subject to government policy,” he said, “but it’s very important that B.C. Hydro is an independent voice that is attending to the needs of its customers, and not completely subservient to political impulses.”
NDP Leader John Horgan criticized McDonald’s appointment, saying her time as Campbell’s deputy minister made her an architect of the clean-energy and self-sufficiency policies that have left B.C. Hydro immersed in debt and problems.
“They created the mess. Ms. McDonald was there at ground zero and I just don’t think it’s the right choice,” Horgan said.
“[McDonald is] a capable, accomplished woman, who could have given a great deal of service to British Columbia in other areas, but not B.C. Hydro. It appears to me on the surface a partisan appointment — and a poor one at that.”
Horgan argued that McDonald is “not from the utility culture.”
“When you want to make fundamental improvements to an organization, it is a positive thing to have somebody who has strong organizational and management skills, but somebody who is not from the actual culture,” he said.
However, Bennett said McDonald will bring a “very fresh perspective” to the job, which could help instil a new culture into B.C. Hydro.
He said McDonald was “an architect of the [government’s] New Relationship with First Nations. I think that’s an outstanding achievement on her part.”
Bennett added that he had “identified as minister that B.C. Hydro could be doing a better job with First Nations, so I think she’ll help with that.”
In particular, B.C. Hydro faces fierce opposition to its signature $8-billion Site C dam project in B.C.’s northeast from four communities in the Treaty 8 Tribal Council — the Doig River, Halfway River, Prophet River and West Moberly First Nations — that have vowed to stop the megaproject.
