The message was clear from denouncers of the sale of Hydro One that the fight is not over, despite numerous reports that 60 per cent of the company will be sold before the 2018 provincial election.
Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas hosted an open house at the United Steelworkers Hall on Aug. 24, with guest speaker Rosario Marchese, chair of the advisory committee for the citizens coalition against the privatization of Hydro One.
The provincial government has unloaded 30 per cent of the company to date, and Premier Kathleen Wynne's business advisor, Ed Clark, has said that he believes 60 per cent of the company will be sold before the next provincial election.
“It's never too late until it's over,” said Marchese. “We've had meetings across Ontario and we're organizing. My point is the government has sold 30 per cent and they want to sell the next 30 per cent, does that mean that we simply give up because they've told us it's a done deal? No, we continue organizing, if we put the pressure on government, they have to reflect on whether or not it's wise to continue doing it.”
According to Gélinas, recent polls of Ontarians have shown that as much as 84 per cent of the province is against the privatization of Hydro One.
“The more voices asking the same thing of our Premier, the louder the voice, the better the chance of being heard,” said Gélinas. “Meetings like tonight gives people a chance to speak with one voice and if they agree then they can get involved. We'll go through how they can get involved as well as their friends, family and neighbours.”
The goal of the sale of Hydro One is to pull in $9 billion, $5 billion would be used to pay down debt and the other $4 billion would go into the Trillium Trust to build new infrastructure, including transit lines.
“The government has said that they're going to raise $9 billion out of this sale, the financial accountability officer has said it's more like $6.5 billion and so far he's right,” said Marchese. “With $5 billion for debt reduction, let's be graceful and say they'll have $2 billion for infrastructure, $2 billion is a spit in the ocean, it's nothing, it's not going to build the Mississauga LRT.”
Marchese and Gélinas both argue that the province would be giving up far more money from Hydro One dividends than would be made through the sale.
“For the last 100 years Ontario has been able to have a public hydro system and we've built bridges, and roads and transit and subways,” said Gélinas. “Since 2000, Hydro One has given out an average onf $931 million per year in dividends that went back to the province. It wouldn't take very long for us to get that money back that (Wynne) wants to make through the sale, and that money would continue flowing to the people of Ontario.”
With poll numbers ranging between 75 and 80 per cent of Ontarians against the sale of Hydro One, Marchese says he's not worried about that number dwindling and citizens slowing getting on board with the idea of Hydro One's privatization.
“When I started last year there wasn't this anger, now whenever I go out there's anger and that means that the movement is growing,” said Marchese.
“We can only grow in our ability to organize people and with that ability we're going to force the regular back-bencher MPP to start getting nervous about re-election and when we start to worry them, they're going to report back to the Premier saying that they've got a problem on their hands.”
