June 28, 2023 – Today, about 390 Hydro Ottawa employees represented by the IBEW commenced strike action.

The collective agreement with the IBEW expired March 31, 2023.

“Hydro Ottawa has initiated our plan to maintain service to our customers while making every effort to minimize the impact of any disruption on the customers we serve,” said Bryce Conrad, president & CEO.

The utility has activated a contingency plan to maintain service, warning that certain services may be rescheduled or delayed during this disruption. Specifically:

• The customer service team and online services remain available.

• New electrical service requests will be accepted, but they will be processed and scheduled once normal business operations have resumed.

• Electrical and non-electrical service requests scheduled for or after June 28 will be rescheduled.

• Hydro Ottawa will continue to respond to electrical emergencies and public safety issues during the labour disruption. Non-emergency work will be delayed.

• The regular tree trimming program will continue during the labour disruption to support storm-hardening efforts, and ensure proper clearance around overhead powerlines.

Should an outage occur, the utility “will do everything we can to ensure we respond to issues as quickly and safely as possible”, adding that it has additional resources at the ready to support outage restoration efforts. However, restoration times will be slower than normal.