Public meeting next week to oppose Hydro One sale

The president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) will be in Sudbury May 20 for a public meeting opposing the province's planned privatization of Hydro One.

In last month's provincial budget, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne unveiled her plan to sell 60 per cent of Hydro One in an initial public offering.

The $4 billion the sale is expected to bring in will help fund a $130 billion, 10-year infrastructure plan, Wynne said.

Wynne's government said the province will keep controlling interest in the utility, since no single person or group can control more than 10 per cent of the shares.

But CUPE has opposed the sale, and has said it won't produce the promised revenues for infrastructure.

The Electricity Act, CUPE says, requires any proceeds from the sale of Hydro One to be paid to the Hydro Financial Corporation so it can pay down the company's debt.

But the Ontario budget said the government would divert those proceeds to the Ontario Trillium Infrastructure Trust – to help pay for the province's infrastructure plans.

“If the government were to spend the money on infrastructure, they would have to pay or forgive an equivalent amount of debt,” CUPE said in a press release. “In other words, borrowing or transferring debt to the province.”

CUPE has also said the sale of Hydro One would end the company's requirements to disclose salary information and would remove it from the government's executive compensation cap.

“In short, Bill 91 doesn’t do what we’ve been told. It ends public accountability and regulation of Hydro One and even exempts the company from Freedom of Information requests retroactively, so we’ll never know the details of the sale,” CUPE president Fred Hahn said in a press release.

Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas, who plans to participate in next Wednesday's public meeting, said selling Hydro One would “drive up rates, hurt local communities and jobs and is a one-time, dead-end source of funding.”

During a visit to Sudbury Wednesday, Ontario Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli said selling Hydro One would not increase hydro rates, because those are regulated by the Ontario Energy Board.

“Hydro One doesn't control its own rates,” Chiarelli said. “The existing government agency does not set its own rates, nor will it set its own rates as a private sector company.”

He added the Ontario Energy Board already regulates the natural gas sector, which includes private corporations like Enbridge and Union Gas.

“It is an effective regulatory agency,” he said. “It already works with the private sector in the gas sector and will continue to do so in the future with the electricity sector.”

When asked about the potential impact Hydro One's privatization could have on jobs, Chiarelli said he expects the corporation to grow as a private entity.

Hydro One has recently appointed David Denison, who formerly managed the Canada Pension Investment Fund, as its chair.

“He is one of the top five corporate managers in Canada,” Chiarelli said.

The public meeting on the sale of Hydro One begins at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 20, at the United Steelworkers Hall on Brady Street.