Keep hydro public
Dear Editor,
It was reported that Bay Street investors couldn’t get their money out fast enough to buy Hydro One stock. Shares opened up at $20.50 and closed at $21.60 for a 5.5 per cent windfall. Stock then rose to a high of $23.15, then closed at $22.60. Those with some loose change of a million dollars invested stood to make $100,000 for a hard day’s work. It was reported that Hydro One shares were the hottest ticket in town.
Is it no wonder the premier fled the country to leave others to answer why the public was being fleeced? Hydro One is a mess. The Ontario Auditor General reported that we were overcharged $37 billion more than necessary over the last eight years for hydro.
Selling 60 per cent of Hydro One is serious, and there will be consequences. When you meddle with electricity, are not grounded in the fundamentals, the results can be shocking or fatal. The public will be left with hydro rates rising 25 per cent over the last year and a further 10 per cent increase on Jan. 1. For business, the chamber of commerce says 20,000 jobs will be lost over the next five years due to rising hydro rates.
It will be bad for schools, roads and hospitals due to lost hydro revenues. It will be bad for the environment by boosting profits for private investors who answer to shareholders. This, simply put, is a bad deal for the province. Eight-five per cent of Ontario is opposed to selling Hydro One, as are 193 municipalities. And the government isn’t listening to anyone.
If the opposition can’t stop the government, then it’s up to the public to make the government come to their senses. Hydro One isn’t theirs to sell – it belongs to the people of Ontario.
I don’t remember giving the government permission to sell Hydro One. Do you? Now is the time for voters to cross party lines and stop the sale of Hydro One. With all oversight removed, the province’s hydro users will be left in the dark for the next 100 years. Hydro One is to Ontario what the railway was to Confederation. As recently as October 2014, the premier of Ontario’s response to questions about the privatization of Hydro One was “we are keeping these assets in public hands.”
Gord Vickers
Chair of the Oshawa Public Hydro Coalition