Ontario NDP Leader Vows To Fight Sell-Off Of Province’s Hydro System

News from the Office of Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath

Queen’s Park, September 10^th, 2014 – Andrea Horwath, Leader of Ontario’s New Democrats, vowed to fight the privatization of Ontario’s hydro system and campaign against the sell-off of public assets by the Liberals.

Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath

 “Resurrecting botched schemes from the Mike Harris days to privatize hydro will only drive up bills for families and enrich insiders,” said Horwath. 

The New Democrat leader said her party was launching a campaign aimed at preventing the Liberal government’s planned fire-sale of Ontario’s public assets and maintaining the province’s ownership of public hydro agencies and the LCBO. 

Horwath will be touring the province meeting with families, community leaders, labour, businesses and other groups about the impacts of the fire-sale on Ontario’s future.

“While the Premier’s advisers are busy meeting private buyers behind closed doors and selling out the people, New Democrats will be hitting the streets and knocking on doors calling for Ontarians to send a message to the Liberal government that these assets should stay in public hands,” she said. 

The Premier’s Advisory Council on Government Assets has been meeting privately in recent weeks with bidders who stand to profit from the sale of public assets, and is headed by TD Bank Group President and CEO Ed Clark.

“Asking a bank CEO to oversee the fire-sale of public assets to Bay Street is like asking the fox to mind the hen house. Our public assets benefit all Ontarians, but the Liberals want to sell them off, and give control of vital infrastructure to financial speculators,” said Horwath.

The New Democrat leader pointed out a sale would mean more expensive hydro bills for families and business, and deprive the province of $1.7 billion annually from the LCBO that goes directly into paying for the services that families rely on. 

“The Liberals are planning to burn the furniture to heat the house,” Horwath said. 

Public assets like OPG, Hydro One and the LCBO provide real tangible benefits for all Ontarians. Public hydro agencies provide lower cost power, and public assets continue to put billions into the public purse. Horwath says New Democrats will stand up for public control and ownership of our assets.

“The Liberals agreed selling off the 407 costs the people of Ontario $1 billion a year, but now they’re looking at selling off the LCBO which generates almost twice as much as the 407. If selling the 407 was a bad idea, selling off the LCBO is an even worse idea.”

BACKGROUNDER:

Although the Liberals have been notably vague about their plans for asset sales, page 4 of the Liberal Party Infrastructure Plan lists $3.15 billion coming from “Asset Optimization”

(http://bit.ly/1uB1iiD )

In spite of repeated calls, the Liberals have refused to provide any information about how they reached the $3.15 billion their plan relies on.

In 2013 Hydro One returned a $218 million dividend to the province (http://bit.ly/1BbZxMO ) and the LCBO returned a $1.74 billion dividend (http://bit.ly/1lIqAfs). This profit helps to pay for roads, schools and hospitals across the province. Sales or partial sales would cut off those revenues to the public purse.

Ontarians have already seen the impact of hydro privatization on their bills. Since 2002 bill have increased from 4.3 cents/kilowatt hour to on-peak consumer pricing of 13.5 cents/kilowatt hour (http://bit.ly/1vOWdqK ). Ontario’s public generator, OPG, continues to produce electricity at just under 60% of the cost of private generators (pg 14 http://bit.ly/1pK7t5l ) helping to control the costs paid by households and business. 

The Liberals have not ruled out the sale of other public assets beyond the three (OPG, Hydro One, LCBO) listed in the 2014 Budget.

Here’s what others have to say about privatizing public assets:

Dalton McGuinty opposed the sale of Hydro One when it was proposed by the Eves Government, saying “Selling Hydro One is a bad idea. It is a natural public monopoly. It is in fact generating a profit for the province of Ontario. Those profits are being used as an investment in the future… This government, after all this time, has yet to make a business case for the sale of Hydro One. This is an embarrassment.” – Hansard, May 29, 2002

Mike Harris said that selling of the LCBO didn’t provide enough “bang for our buck” – National Post, “Harris planning selling spree of Crown Assets.” May 27, 1999

Former Finance Premier Ernie Eves said selling the LCBO didn’t make sense: “Eves says the former Conservative government went through a similar exercise in 2002 but couldn’t get an adequate price for the agency, which turns over $1.4 billion a year in profits. He says a government should not be selling assets that generate so much annual revenue just to solve what he calls “an in-year deficit problem.”” – CBC News online, December 21, 2009

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