In June, MRPC President Paul Virgin and General Manager Scott Newton presented a 2019 dividend cheque to Mayor Lowry for $225,000.
Over the past five years, MRPC has passed along dividends of $900,000, and nearly $600,000 in interest payments (explained below) to the Municipality.
Mississippi River Power Corp. is a private corporation under the Ontario Business Corporation’s Act. The Municipality of Mississippi Mills owns 100% of the shares in the company. In 2000, Almonte Hydro was mandated through Bill 35 (the Electricity Competition Act) to cease operations as a Public Utility and split the wires and generation sides into separate entities. The assets were transferred to the Municipality, and then transferred to new companies, Mississippi River Power Corp. for the generation side and Ottawa River Power Corporation for the wires side. The value of those assets was (and still is) held by the Municipality on a promissory note. MRPC pays interest on that promissory note to the Municipality every year, in addition to dividends.
Since 2000, MRPC has paid nearly $2.2M in promissory note interest payments to Mississippi Mills.