Fred Hahn says the vast majority of Thunder Bay residents are opposed to the province’s proposed sale of more than half of its shares of Hydro One to the private sector.
Hahn, the president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Ontario, said 87 per cent of respondents in a poll commissioned by the union and conducted by Environics Research indicated they are not in favour of the deal.
Nothing good can come of the sale, Hahn added Wednesday night during a union-led public open house addressing the issue in Thunder Bay.
It’s a real problem, he added.
“These are our assets,” Hahn said. “These are things that our parents and grandparents bought and paid for with their taxes. It’s the only way to distribute hydro power across the province.”
Hahn said the Liberal government talks about the mistake made by selling the Toronto-area Highway 407 to private interests.
This has similar consequences.
“Hydro One is the only highway we have to get power all the way across the province. And we will all pay more as a result of corporations needing to make a profits on that highway,” Hahn said.
Higher costs will affect everyone in the province, which is why the union is taking up the fight.
Hahn said the increases could lead to job losses, as cities and towns and government institutions face cutbacks in order to pay for their higher electricity bill.
“We have 250,000 members and all across the broader public sector we’re seeing a real squeeze in those services,” Hahn said. “And people in this community will know it. They’ll notice the hospital beds that have closed, or child-care centres that have closed, longer wait lists for long-term care.
“When those facilities have to pay two or three times what they’re paying for hydro today, those organizations will have to find that money somewhere. It will mean losses of services to communities and it will mean lost jobs.”
About 50 people showed up to the open house, held at the Lakehead Labour Centre.
United Way board member and longtime union activist Jules Tupker was among the crowd and said privatization will lead to higher hydro costs, which is why he decided to speak up.
“That’s the trend and that’s always the history of the privatization of public services. The costs go up, the actual service goes down and there’s nothing but problems.”
Still, despite Premier Kathleen Wynne owning a majority at Queen’s Park, Tupker said he’s confident the protests, being staged across the province, can have an impact and hopefully convince the province to do an about face.
Hahn said no elected official in Ontario ran on a platform of selling off a portion of Hydro One, another reason to stop the deal in its tracks.
This is not the first time Hydro One has been up for grabs. Conservative premier Mike Harris and his successor, Ernie Eaves both tried to sell the corporation, but were stopped in 2002 through legal channels.
The Environics interactive poll, conducted by telephone, surveyed 572 people and comes with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
