Hundreds out for anti-hydro sale meeting

By Graeme McNaughton/The Oshawa Express

More than 200 people packed the ballroom of the Jubilee Pavilion to hear comments on the possible sale of Hydro One – and none of them were happy at the prospect.

One political heavyweight on hand was provincial NDP leader Andrea Horwath, who sat on the panel leading the discussions.

“Well, I was here a couple of weeks ago doing a round table discussion about this issue and I was invited to come to tonight’s town hall. I’m thrilled at the number of people that showed up. Every community that I go to, the momentum seems to be building. More and more people are getting involved in this,” she told The Oshawa Express following the meeting. “(Premier) Kathleen Wynne would like nothing more than people to talk only about beer in grocery stores but not about their public hydro system being sold off by the Liberals.”

The move to sell a 60-per-cent stake in the public utility was announced at the unveiling of the provincial budget, with an expected $9 billion coming from its future sale, with $4 billion of that to go toward public infrastructure projects.

A poll sponsored by CUPE and released ahead of the meeting found that 89 per cent of Oshawa residents are against the sale of Hydro One.

Horwath says its results like this that speak loud and clear on how the public is against Hydro One going private.

“It’s really clear for the people of Ontario that this is the wrong decision and the wrong path,” she said, adding the full house at Lakeview is evidence of that.

Against the sale

Since the announcement that a majority of Hydro One would be sold off last month, many groups – both provincial and local in scope – have spoken up to oppose it. The Public Hydro Coalition of Oshawa organized the town hall meeting at the Lakeview Pavilion, inviting members of political stripes to attend.

In the end, only the NDP answered the call, with Horwath, energy critic Peter Tabuns and Oshawa MPP Jennifer French in attendance.

There were also representatives from Unifor Local 222 and CUPE, as well as Paul Kahnert, a former spokesperson for the Ontario Electricity Coalition.

“Hydro rates have gone up from 4.3 cents kW/h on April 1, 1999 to 16.1 cents kW/h. That’s a 374 per cent increase, or 12 times the rate of inflation. Industry and businesses are being gouged and refusing to locate here or are moving,” he told the hundreds in attendance, later adding that those rates will only continue to climb if Hydro One is in private hands. “Nobody has forgotten the sale of Highway 407, and in the next election, nobody is going to forget the sale of Hydro One.”

French, the NDP critic for seniors, says a rise in hydro rates will have a big effect on those who are already living on a fixed income.

“In our province, we have a lot of calls from our older neighbours and they are doing their best to get by and…already they’re struggling with their hydro bills, among a million other things,” French said. “I know that when rates go up, which they’re going to, they’re going to be extremely hard hit, along with all of our friends and neighbours.”

Also in attendance – although not at the head table – was Councillor Nester Pidwerbecki, who came as a representative of city council.

“Not only are we going to suffer by (the sale of Hydro One), but (younger generations) are going to suffer far worse down the road than we are,” he said. “Keep that in mind, and work to stop this thing from happening.”