Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath
(A Brief Forward from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – The move by Ontario’s Liberal government to at least partially privatize Hydro One – the hydro delivery piece of a once-proud Ontario Hydro plundered by the former Ontario Conservative government of Mike Harris – should be of concern to everyone who uses and pays for hydro services in the province.
Somehow, Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne argues that this move to sell off some portion of Hydro One to private shareholders will bring much needed money to the province for other things like public transit, infrastructure renewal, etc. That seems very suspect given the history of privatization in other jurisdictions, including Margaret Thatcher’s Britain where the privatization of public services like water led to a significant rise in water costs, a crumbling of water delivery infrastructure and an explosion of boil water advisories (due to dangerous fecal bacteria, etc. in the water) all over the country.
Finally, what we may all want to consider as the Wynne government moves quickly in the days ahead to approve this hydro privatization plan is that private corporations and their shareholders have a history of placing profits and dollar returns to them above everything else. We, the consumers of hydro services, are lucky if our concerns around hydro costs come a distant second.)
From the Office of Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath
Queen’s Park, May, 2015 – This May 22nd, 2015, Andrea Horwath, Leader of Ontario’s New Democrats called on the Liberal government to separate the portions of Bill 91 that relate to the proposed sell-off of Hydro One and to travel the committee across the province.
“Kathleen Wynne didn’t run on a plan to sell-off Hydro One and to this day she refuses to listen to Ontarians. She buried her short-sighted sell-off in a Harper-style omnibus bill and at every turn she has shut down debate and stifled consultation,” said Horwath.
For weeks, Horwath and the Ontario NDP Caucus have called for hearings to travel the Province in order to ensure the most inclusive consultation possible. These requests have been consistently ignored by the Wynne Government.
“We’re not interested in working to pass an omnibus budget bill when Kathleen Wynne won’t listen to Ontario families on Hydro One. I’m calling on the Liberal government to separate the sell-off of Hydro One from their budget bill and to take the committee on the road over the summer so that Ontarians across the Province can have their say on this incredibly important issue.”
With one day of committee hearings left under the closure motion the Liberals rammed through the house last week, three quarters of the over 400 people that asked to appear at committee still have not had their chance to be heard. The committee has sat exclusively in Toronto.
“The Premier’s Harper-style tactics are the sign of a government that is growing more arrogant and out of touch by the day. I am calling on Kathleen Wynne to do the right thing and give Ontarians their chance to be heard on Hydro One.”
(Now this from the Ontario NDP on a just released report by the province’s Ombudsman, scolding Ontario Hydro for recent money wastes – not a reason, Ombudsman Andre Marin said, for privatizing the agency. In fact, he said, there would be even less of a chance to keep Hydro One accountable to the public it serves if it were privatized.)
Statement by NDP Energy Critic Peter Tabuns (MPP, Toronto-Danforth) on Ontario Ombudsman’s report on Hydro One
Queen’s Park – “Today (this Monday, May 25th, 2015), Ontario’s accountable and public Ombudsman showed exactly why we need to retain public oversight of Hydro One. Kathleen Wynne’s plan is to remove all public accountability and put it in the hands of the private sector.
The overbilling and billing mistakes at Hydro One left 84,000 families and businesses wondering how they would pay their hydro bills. It was only through the work of a public, independent Ombudsman that Ontarians got results.
A corporate ombudsman is only responsible to the corporation, not Ontarians. We know that cell phone companies, cable companies and even the 407 have Ombudsman Offices. When was the last time we heard a critical report from those corporate ombudsman offices? There is no substitute for the independent, public oversight of the Ontario Ombudsman.
Ontarians can’t afford to pay the price for the Liberal scheme to sell-off Hydro One. We need strong, independent watchdogs who answer to the public interest, not to shareholders.”
To read Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin’s report on the scandalous excesses of Hydro One, which should have some heads rolling, click on https://ombudsman.on.ca/Newsroom/Press-Release/2015/Ombudsman-urges-corporate-culture-overhaul,–ongoi.aspx .
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