A citizens’ coalition determined to stop the Ontario Liberal government from selling off the remaining 60 percent of Hydro One, still in public hands, will be in Timmins tonight at 6 p.m. at St. Dominique’s Parish Hall to listen to the concerns of area residents, business and industry.
“Ontario has seen electricity rates go from 4.5 cents to 30 cents a kilowatt hour since 2003 when the Liberal party came into power,” said longtime NDP MPP Rosario Marchese, the Chair of Citizens Coalition Against Privatization and a former Minister of Culture in the Bob Rae government.
“Fully privatizing Hydro One by selling it off to the private sector at bargain basement prices will further increase the price of electricity,” Marchese said in a telephone conference held last Friday in the office of Gilles Bisson, NDP MPP for Timmins-James Bay.
“People of Ontario are fed up with the extremely high cost of electricity in this province,” Marchese said. “Still the prices may climb higher to the detriment of jobs and our economy if Kathleen Wynne has her way.”
Marchese pointed out that for over 90 years Ontario prospered by the vision of Sir Adam Beck, a Conservative MPP from London, Ontario. At the beginning of the 20th century,Beck advocated for a crown-owned public hydro company that acquired ownership of dozens of poorly run private hydro companies and also built Ontario’s largest hydro generating facility by Niagara Falls which today bears his name.
“Only publicly-owned hydro can keep prices low and affordable,” Marchese emphasized. “Publicly-owned Ontario Hydro managed to keep prices low through war times and depressions.”
“However, today the belief in privatization as a solution to all of Ontario’s problems has crippled the province,” he said.
Marchese pointed out that Northern Ontario has borne the brunt of the pain.
“In the last 20 years since the Harris government began the dismantling of the Ontario Hydro, the provinces cost of electricity has soared while publicly owned utilities in Manitoba and Quebec have maintained lower prices at around 4 cents per kilowatt hours,” Marchese said.
“As a result the pulp and paper sector so important to the North has all but abandoned their operations because of the high cost of electricity preferring to operate in lower cost jurisdictions like Quebec,” he added.
In Timmins, the high cost of electricity led directly to the loss of about 200 jobs when the Kidd Creek MET site closed down and moved to Quebec because of lower hydro costs.
“The game Wynne is playing,” said Marchese, “is one of short term gain by selling off Hydro One she may keep her short-term goal of eliminating the deficit.”
“But the long term effect will be devastating,” he added.
“From what the Financial Accountability Officer said about four months ago, Ontario will lose approximately $500-million of profit per year,” he said.
Marchese further added the government will never be able to afford to buy the utility back once the 60 per cent is fully sold off.
Marchese hope's to put in local citizen chapters of the group across the province to help get their message out further.
“We believe stories of business people, municipalities and families who have been affected will force the Wynne government to change its mind about selling off Hydro One,” Marchese said.
A similar coalition stopped the government of Ernie Eaves from pushing through total privatization of hydro in 2001-2003.
A strong demand from the Ontario people will force the current Premier of Ontario Kathleen Wynne to back down or face electoral defeat.
Marchese said it is unfathomable unfounded that privatization will lead to lower prices for industry, municipalities and homeowners.
“It has never happened in history where privatization occurs like in Nova Scotia and Alberta that lower prices occurred,” Marchese emphasized.
“The sole purpose of a private corporation is to make money for its share holders,” Marchese said.
Marchese also noted that there also is no room for conservation under a privatized system because it needs to consume to sell hydro increase revenue
The introduction of the Green Energy Act was handled poorly by the McGuinty government argued Marchese because McGuinty government did not allow publicly owned Ontario Power Generation to participate.
According to Marchese, the best way to introduce green power and conservation is through a publicly-owned utility.
