An experienced cabinet minister and previous mayor of Ottawa, the Hon. Bob Chiarelli was appointed Minister of Energy by Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne on February 11. Minister Chiarelli brings a wealth of political experience to the position as well as expertise in the area of infrastructure development. Now a cabinet minister and the MPP for Ottawa West-Nepean, he served previously as the first mayor of the newly amalgamated city of Ottawa from 2000 to 2006. During that period Mr. Chiarelli worked intensively to promote the expansion of the city’s light-rail system.
In recent years at the provincial level Mr. Chiarelli has held the portfolios of Infrastructure and Transportation, during which time he no doubt was able to work on municipal infrastructure issues from “the other side of the table.” As Minister of Infrastructure, he held responsibility for province-wide infrastructure planning: Mr. Chiarelli oversaw infrastructure investments totaling more than $10 billion each year and introduced Ontario’s first 10-year infrastructure plan, Building Together. There is little doubt that this kind of experience was relevant when he was being considered for the Energy Minister portfolio.
Observers have noted that Mr. Chiarelli’s qualifications include a reputation for financial management skills that will be important for him in handling the ongoing public debates about the cancellation of gas plants in Ontario. A February 11 memo from the Sussex Strategy Group describes him as “smart and experienced,” stressing that “it would be difficult to find controversy or accusations of mismanagement anywhere in his tenure.”
Minister Chiarelli took an interest in the energy sector early on in his political career. In January 1998, just three weeks after being sworn in as the elected regional chair of Ottawa-Carleton, the Minister received a call at home at 3 am, got dressed in the dark, was picked up at home in a police emergency vehicle and went to Regional Headquarters to preside over the Region’s Emergency Measures Team. By 10:00 am, he had declared the Region a disaster area. This was the start of the ice storm, a disaster of historic proportions that is well known in the electric power industry.
Recalling the ice storm, Minister Chiarelli said, “I participated in protecting the people of our region and helped to oversee, with all our first responders, the emergency rebuilding of huge swaths of our distribution and transmission network. That included a large military rescue initiative lasting more than two months.”
Three years later, when Minister Chiarelli was Mayor of the newly amalgamated City of Ottawa, the shareholder of a new and larger Hydro Ottawa, the City went through the restructuring of the electricity sector across the province. And of course, as Mayor representing the shareholder of Hydro Ottawa, and as director, the Minister shared the experience of the blackout of the summer of 2003. He also had the privilege of serving as a director of the IESO for three years.
“I learned the hard way. Because of those experiences, and as a former Minister of Infrastructure, I know that a strong, reliable energy system is the backbone of our economy. That’s why our Government has aggressively invested in modernizing our system over the past decade. And as we move forward, our goals are clear: to make our air cleaner; to build a modern energy system we can rely on; and to help Ontario families manage their electricity bills.”
Minister Chiarelli was an Ottawa-based lawyer and businessman before his first stint as MPP for the riding of Ottawa West from 1987 to 1997. He also served as parliamentary assistant to the Chair of the Management Board in 1987-88. He was elected chair of the regional municipality of Ottawa-Carleton in 1997, prior to running for mayor.
Born and raised in Ottawa’s Little Italy as the youngest of seven children, Mr. Chiarelli earned his law degree at the University of Ottawa and set up a community-based legal practice. He also has a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York. Always actively involved in his community, he worked to modernize the refugee claim process and to “give low-income Ottawa residents better access to affordable housing.” He was a Senior Fellow in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa.
Mr. Chiarelli and his partner, Randi Hansen, live in Ottawa. He enjoys spending time with his adult children and two grandchildren.