Hampton hopes to short-circuit hydro privatization

Ken Johnston
Editor

The court decision Friday will not short-circuit the Town of Rainy River’s sale of the local electric utility.
On Friday an Ontario court ruled that the provincial government did not have the legislative authority to sell off Ontario Hydro. Rainy River Member of Parliament and leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party, Howard Hampton, told the Record Monday that, “Nowhere in the legislation did they (the provincial government) have the legal authority to sell off this public asset.”
Hampton compared the sale of the provincially run utility to the sale of Canadian National Railway or Highway 407 (in Southern Ontario). “The government has to pass legislation to give them the authority to sell off public assets. No such legislation was passed in this case.”
Until 1996, when huge omnibus Bill 26 was passed, to sell off a public asset like Ontario Hydro or even the Rainy River electric utility, “A binding plebiscite would have had to be held.” The passage of Bill 26 removed the need for that. Hence the sale of Rainy River’s electric utility was able to be done by council as long as they were in a willing buyer, willing seller situation.
However, the scope of the Ontario Hydro sale was much larger and the provincial government needs to have the right to sell legislated.
Hampton said that Friday’s ruling will delay the May 1, 2002 privatization until June at the very earliest. “The earliest they can call the legislature back is May 15th. The earliest the legislation (to legalize the sale) can be introduced and passed would be the end of May.”
Hampton said the other option for the government is to appeal, but that would take about three months, which he feels the government will think is to long to wait.
Hampton’s party has been agressively working to educate the public on what they say will be the down side of privatization. According to Hampton in other jurisdictions where privatization has occurred the consumers have seen their electricity prices as much as double. He said that 70% of Ontarions are opposed to the privatization. With that in mind, why move forward with the sale?
Hampton feels that Bay Street investors see a huge opporunity to make money. Their pressure and the $5.5 billion the province expects to get from the sale seem to be the driving forces to move ahead with it. However, Hampton feels that his party’s efforts along with the aid of other groups like the two labour unions that took the case to court and generated Friday’s ruling will suceed. “I think it can be stopped.”
At the very least Hampton hopes that it can be delayed as long as possible. Hampton speculated that an election call will take place in a little over a year and the closer privatization is to it, the less likely higher electricity bills will aid the government’s bid to get reelected. That says Hampton could nix the whole deal.
To date the NDP have gathered more than a million signatures on their on line poll against privatization of the utility and he feels they are still picking up momentum. “We will continue to hammer away at this,” concluded Hampton.