Ontario election and privatization

[Joe Shlabotnik]

In April, the Ontario Liberal government appointed Bilderberg Steering Committee member Ed Clark (President/CEO of TD Bank Group) to lead a five-member council that will consider options to "optimize the full value" of provincial assets such as Ontario Power Generation (OPG) and Hydro One -- potentially privatizing key electricity transmission and distribution assets.

That would be an astonishing move -- outdoing even the old Mike Harris vision -- and should be a primary focus of the Ontario election on June 12.

Having already handed power-production over to private-sector independent power producers (IPPs) and guaranteeing them outrageously high feed-in tariffs, Ontario seems to be following in the disastrous path of Alberta. There, $16 billion taxpayer dollars have been poured into building transmission infrastructure owned by the private sector, primarily Atco and SNC Lavalin's AltaLink. To the shock of many, in May 2014 Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Energy announced a $3.2 billion deal to buy AltaLink, which serves more than four-fifths of the province.

Financial analyst Erik Andersen told me by email that the takeover bid is "not a surprise" to the financial industry because "all P3 [public-private partnership] and IPP contracts are transferable" and "ownership moves up the food chain."

By 2012, TransCanada Corp. had become the biggest IPP in Ontario. Bruce Power -- one of whose owners is TransCanada Corp. -- is reportedly now eyeing the purchase of OPG, or parts of it. Privatizing Ontario's electricity transmission sector would also facilitate energy-export corridors, which TransCanada is involved in planning.

More at: http://rabble.ca/news/2014/06/rockefeller-files-ontario-election-and-privatization


Thought you hated TransCanada now. Wait until our tax dollars and hydro rates are directly funding their heinous activities.

[blkmusclmachine]

1. Canada, your good way of life is being stripped out right from under your noses. Shameful!

[laundry_queen]

2. Privatizing utilities and assets should be illegal

Look for your rates to double at a minimum. And, the government eventually funds the infrastructure anyway, while the private utilities pocket the profits. It's all bullshit. I live in Alberta, moving here from BC. I know. Electricity rates here are insane. One hot day. One. And there are rolling brown outs.

This winter, we had a ton of power outages. It was unreal. One was 4 hours long because of a bird. One was 3 hours and they couldn't figure out what was causing it. There was one that I'll give them - we had a wind storm. Power was out all day, but at least that time was understandable.

When I was growing up here, we rarely had power outages. I don't remember any that lasted more than an hour or 2, EXCEPT for ONE. The day of the '87 Edmonton tornado. And we got power back within 12 hours despite being about a mile or less from where the tornado touched down and despite a whole row of high voltage lines toppling from the winds.

No, privatizing isn't good for anyone but rich CEOs.