Boondoggle of billions
The 200-plus people that packed the ballroom of the Lakeview Pavilion recently was a clear representation of what many Ontario residents are thinking – selling the majority of publicly-owned Hydro One is a bad idea.
The province has said it expects to net approximately $9 billion when all is said and done. That money will go to a mix of paying off debt and funding infrastructure projects.
However, buried in the legislation that brings forward the start of the sale process is the removal of something that is especially worrisome: oversight.
This was highlighted when a letter co-signed by the offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, Ombudsman, Auditor General, Environmental Commissioner, Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth, Financial Accountability Officer and Integrity Commissioner, criticized the provincial government for taking out the much-needed oversight of Hydro One.
Opponents say a public utility cannot work – the province says it will maintain de facto control of Hydro One due to limitations of how much of a share private interests can purchase in the utility – if there is no official oversight.
The Ombudsman made this clear with the release of his latest report, which looks at the mess that took place when Hydro One changed its billing system. Customers who owed two- and three-digit amounts were hounded for thousands of dollars.
A man in Sudbury who owed $74, but was sent a bill for $19,152 instead, would not have the same protections under the proposed new system as he does now.
A monopoly is never a good thing and the public could be held hostage to the continuously rising costs of a private corporation for a service that has become a necessity of life. With the government’s sale of Highway 407, at least we get to choose whether or not we would like to drive on it and pay the astronomical fees for use of that private road.
So where do we go from here? Grassroots movements such as the reinvigorated Public Hydro Coalition of Oshawa is a shining example of drumming up community support in fighting something you don’t believe should happen.
The group said it’s planning to take its message on the road, soon heading to Peterborough. Paul Kahnert, one of the speakers at the Oshawa event, said it best when he said that if every community had a group like the one Oshawa has, this bill would be dead.