Ontario Premier Doug Ford to visit areas without electricity since ice storm

TORONTO — Premier Doug Ford said Thursday that he plans to visit some areas affected by prolonged power outages since a powerful ice storm hit central and northern Ontario over the weekend.

Hydro One said that of the approximately 175,000 customers without power as of late Thursday afternoon, nearly 45,000 lost power in the previous 24 hours as a result of high winds that have affected central and eastern parts of the province.

The weekend ice storm caused severe damage in cities such as Orillia and Peterborough, while another storm system that moved through parts of Ontario Wednesday and overnight caused additional outages and slowed down restoration efforts, the utility said.

Hydro One said power has been restored for more than 85 per cent of nearly a million affected customers but there is “still a lot of work ahead” until everyone gets their electricity back. The utility said its crew members have discovered more than 1,800 broken poles so far.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Ford told reporters at Queen’s Park on Thursday morning. “We’re working full out again, we have the teams out there from emergency management, the Ontario Corps, warming centres, foods brought in.”

Ford’s office said he would be visiting the storm command centre in Orillia on Friday.

He said the governments of Quebec and Saskatchewan have sent hydro crews to help, and he also thanked non-governmental organizations, including GlobalMedic and Team Rubicon, for providing supplies and cutting trees.

Hydro One said the storm is the most severe weather event the utility has faced since the ice storm of 1998.

It said 3,800 Hydro One workers, contractors and others are working to restore power to hardest-hit areas and “most” customers are expected to be back online by the weekend.

“For remote areas, including customers who can only be reached by water, restoration may take longer,” the utility said in a statement. “Road access continues to be a challenge in the most impacted areas, along with safety concerns of tree branches and limbs coming down.”

Ford said some people in those hard-hit areas don’t have access to information and online resources.

“When someone’s internet is down and televisions are down, we have to come up with a new mechanism to communicate because it’s very difficult to communicate when people don’t have the ability to watch television,” he said.

Provincial police have been asking non-locals to keep away from the affected areas until storm cleanup is under control and urging residents to be patient as power outages persist.

OPP said Thursday that a hydro worker in the Peterborough area was threatened by a driver upset about the outages.

“The Peterborough County OPP understand that area residents still experiencing power outages are feeling frustrated and upset but remind individuals that making threats can be considered a criminal offence and will not be tolerated,” police said in a news release.

Some parts of southern Ontario were hit by another round of wild spring weather, with thunderstorms dumping as much as 75 millimetres of rain in parts of the Greater Toronto Area in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Provincial police asked drivers to use caution as flooding was been reported on highways throughout the Greater Toronto Area, and Peel Region police said some roads near Highway 407 in Brampton and Mississauga were closed due to flooding.

The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority was also cautioning the public about possible localized ponding and rising water levels due to rainfall, as well as melting snow and ice.

Parts of Quebec were under a freezing rain warning Thursday, with a possible chance of two to four millimetres of ice buildup. A snowfall warning was also in effect in some areas.

Hydro-Quebec reported that roughly 18,000 customers were without power as of Thursday evening.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 3, 2025.

Maan Alhmidi, The Canadian Press