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Hydro One’s audacity
EESTI ELU reedel, 9. aprillil 2021 — Friday, April 9, 2021
Kudos. But Hydro One is another entity altogether. Those of us fortunate enough to have a place to escape to – read cottage – from the urban bustle, must have been gobsmacked by the recent notice that the mo nopoly delivered by mail to their customers. In our case, our cottage on leased land at Kotkajärve, a beautiful Musko ka property that allowed pre-pandemic many wonderful hikes. No running water, a kybo (outhouse) for serious needs, otherwise the bush does just fine. For a male, at least. Yet one needs to cook – although there is a firepit built there to allow for the best grilled meats, fish and vegetables. And at night one needs electricity to see the board of the game chosen by the offspring. Who face the vana kartul with trepi dation. Having listened to our pre mier and his off-kilter advice, it has been more than a year that our “bubbled” family has been in Paradise North. Paying the rent on the land lease is not an issue. But Hydro One’s audacity in jacking up “seasonal” cus tomer rates is quite unbeliev able. Used to be that one paid for the electricity used. Then one began to pay for mere connectedness. As in delivery. The sum paid, just for having a meter. Not for what actually was used. Now the seasonal category is being eliminated, with at least a 10 % increase in getting electricity to a quiet place in the woods. Pending legislators and bureaucrats, of course. Certainly, there are mainte nance costs, keeping the elec trical lines and transformers en route in good shape. Yet – to
pay for just being connected? In a country, where from Bell Canada on the captive subscriber already pays, as a rule, not with all services, thankfully, more than anywhere else? A seasonal customer is just that. The KJ cottage was ac quired for the next generation, not the older generation, the parents. Who as noted, play by the rules. Having to move to a new rate class, justified by Hydro One as a protective measure so as to avoid large bill increases is illogical. At least to this captive bill-payer. One wonders. Why does not this country, with abundant natural resources – from the power plants driven by Niagara Falls and others similar, nuclear – and safe – electricity generators have better protec tions for the end-users? Who literally have no choice. Electricity distribution rates should be moderated by the actual cost of serving the cus tomer. Not arbitrarily, as Hydro One’s advisory makes clear. One has no idea how cottagers at Seedrioru and Jõekääru are affected. But at KJ, where cottagers keep the place finan cially alive, except for the – will they happen this year? – scout/guide camps and Met sa ülikool, our wonderful Forest University, are expected to pay more, while renting the land under the cottage seems some what usurious. My personal viewpoint. The well-compen sated pensioners, some of them Estonians, on the Hydro One (which had an extraordinary number of vice-presidents at one time) plush benefits plan perhaps do not see the need to keep sanity and common sense rather than profit in view.
RIA yearbook: Cyber criminals took advantage of COVID-19 fears
losses. To RIA’s knowledge, the largest one-off loss last year was over €41,000, which a partner of a Viljandi-based company transferred to a scam mer’s account. At the beginning of this year, there was an at tempt at invoice fraud, which, if successful, would have broken the loss records with approxi mately €900,000. Thanks to the attention of the employees, no payments were made to the fraudulent account. Among other things, readers can learn about the new Estonian information security standard and how RIA-led EU CyberNet is setting up a cyber security center of excellence in the Dominican Republic. The role of RIA in the elections and the future EU Cyber Security Competence Center are also discussed. Raul Rikk, the cyber security policy chief of Estonia, writes about ensuring the security of 5G networks, Oskar Gross, head of the Central Criminal Police’s cyber crimes depart ment, discusses maintaining cyber security, and Heli TiirmaaKlaar, Estonia’ special envoy on cyber security, explains how
The problem with monopolies is simple. There is no other place to go. No option is available. And, alas, one has to pay through the nose for such. We can do without some services. Cable TV is an expensive luxury. But we do subscribe, for it is the only game in town. These days a telephone landline is perhaps also not necessary. Considering the cost. But one thing that we do consider essential is electri city. To light dim rooms. To enable cooking as well as saving perishables in a con trolled environment, known as the refrigerator. To read at night, by the warm glow of a carefully selected lamp. The list is long. Power outages are accepted as part and parcel of the un avoidable. Weather and demand do put a demand on the supply system of this modern, not a convenience but a requirement for quality of life. And it is expensive. One utility that we cannot imagine doing without. But it is not as if the user has a choice. You are tied to the grid. And the supplier. Pre viously this writer has carped about how in Toronto we are faced with exorbitant rises in paying for electricity. Actually for supply, rather than usage so much. Thankfully, Toronto Hydro has understood during this pandemic that leads the majority of people to follow rules, be indoors, use more electricity than usual, just so that we can virtually work. They actually lowered rates, acknowledging the reality and need to work from home.
BNS/ERR, April 2021 The Estonian Information System Authority (RIA) says in its recently published cyber security yearbook that cyber criminals have been keen to exploit people’s coronavirus fears. The yearbook talks about record number of phishing, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, Emotet mal ware and cyber attacks on ministries in 2020. In addition to the incidents, the yearbook also touches on the impact of COVID-19 on Estonian cyberspace, the greater role of RIA in the elections, the new Estonian information security standard and the most important developments in international cyber cooperation. “The coronavirus crisis also affected what was happening in cyberspace. First, we saw that criminals took advantage of people’s fears and ignorance to make a profit from fraudulent and phishing e-mails. As nor mal life came to a standstill,
much of life moved to a digital solution, and it was felt that many companies and institu tions were not ready for it at the time – for example, scam mers gained access to some companies’ data because tele working solutions were not set up correctly,” Mart Hiietamm, head of the analysis and preven tion department at RIA, said. Hiietamm added that there are no areas that could not be affected by cyber incidents. “This means that every person, company and institution must constantly contribute to their own protection in cyberspace. It simply cannot be any other way,” he added. The CERT-EE unit respon sible for the management of security incidents at RIA registered 2,722 incidents last year. The year was marked by bank and e-mail account phish ing, DDoS attacks involving blackmail and hitherto unknown security vulnerabilities. Al though there were more frauds last year, there were fewer large
TÕNU NAELAPEA
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Meet KESKUS construction manager In late 2020, KESKUS, the International Estonian Centre being developed in the heart of Toronto, put out the construction manager contract for tender. Development Manager David Kalm explains: “The Construc tion Manager is a key team player for a project of this magnitude and complexity. We customized the evaluation grid for proponents, received excel lent proposals and interviewed the top 3 bidders. We decided in favour of Harbridge+Cross Ltd. (H+C). H+C is responsible for shop drawings, tendering, ensuring safety onsite and de livering the project on time, within scope and on budget.” International Estonian Centre Inc. board member Bob Spokowski, a a 40-year veteran of the construction industry, 20 years as a structural design engineer and 20 years working for a large general contractor (read more here), adds that “H+C was a good choice with their fixed price approach to the project. They have a long history of successful builds. In addition to institutional projects for the Government of Ontario, City of Toronto, OCAD Uni versity, University of Toronto, H+C’s sweet spot is complex projects like KESKUS. It is a good fit for the size and com plexity of the project and H+C has a reputation for working well with project architects and engineers.” Bill Waters, P. Eng., is one of the owners of H+C, has over 33 years of experience, has a broad knowledge of all levels of construction, and is LEED ac credited. Bill is H+C’s Project Manager for KESKUS and oversees the project team for estimating, site supervisors, health and safety, accounting, project managers, labour and administration. “I’m at the stage of my career that I enjoy complex projects the most and KESKUS is just that,” says Bill and notes that at H+C, he has built over subway tunnels before and has a solid working relationship with the Toronto Transit Com mission who owns and manages Toronto’s transit services. KESKUS architect Alar Kongats has previously worked with H+C and with Bill Waters in particular. Alar notes that the $25.5m University of Toronto Mississauga, Terrance Donnelly
Estonia has become a pioneer of cyber diplomacy. “The idea of the RIA cyber security yearbook is to give the reader a broad snapshot of the level of cyber security in
Bill Waters, Vice-President of Harbridge+Cross Limited, KES KUS Construction Manager.
Health Sciences Complex also had a complex glazing compo nent and Bill’s careful manage ment of the process was key to success of the construction deliverables for the award-win ning building. Alar adds: “Bill’s methodical approach and calm demeanour is reflected in his whole team. Their depth of ex perience makes the complexity of building on a tight site with a tight budget and timelines manageable.” A comparable for the KESKUS project is the recently completed Fort York Visitor Centre that was built by H+C adjacent to the Gardiner Ex pressway in Toronto, for the City of Toronto. It too had multiple stakeholders, a tight site and innovative architecture, with a similar budget and time lines. Bill notes one more thing “I’m delighted to be working with Alar Kongats and his team and now with David Kalm, Ellen Valter, Veiko Parming, Hans Kukk, and others, increas ing my circle of admirable Estonians”, and continues “plus already I’m impressed with the engineering coming out of Estonia with the curtain wall. It is a pleasure to incorporate the goal of KESKUS into H+C’s work on the project, that in all practicable aspects, it is an ‘Estonia First’ building. This means that we build tendering in Estonia into our timelines, to make sure the building reflects as much Estonian innovation, material and know-how as possible.” Keep in touch with project news • Visit our website for updates • Sign up for our monthly email newsletterand get the latest news right to your inbox. • Follow us on Facebook: @ EestiKeskus
Estonia, with interesting read ing for everyone as well as good recommendations for those responsible for cyber security collected between its covers,” Hiietamm said.
