US embassy cable - 03OTTAWA2354

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