Hydro privatization
HISTORIC SELLOUT BETRAYS THE PEOPLE OF ONTARIO.
IT MUST BE STOPPED!
PREMIER KATHLEEN WYNNE
A respected leader makes
an appalling decision.
an appalling decision.
Premier Wynne’s plan to sell 60% of Hydro One to private owners is a shocker
In exchange for a one-time lump sum payment, the people of Ontario would lose hundreds of millions of dollars a year in hydro revenues — forever.
This permanent loss of funding for public services such as health care and education would hurt the people of Ontario.
Don’t believe the empty promises.
Privatization always pushes the cost of electricity even higher!
Electricity rates are already on the rise because of creeping partial privatization. Selling off Hydro One would bring more and bigger rate hikes because private power always costs more.
Private power owners have enormous political power. They ensure that regulations do not stand in the way of ever-higher electricity rates and super profits.
Yet another round of electricity rate increases would be a serious blow to the economy. Small businesses and residential customers would be hardest hit.
Hydro privatization is a one-time, dead-end source of funding
Premier Wynne says hydro privatization will fund transit expansion. But bridges, buses and railways have a limited lifespan. When repairs and replacement are required, what will the Premier suggest? Sell more public assets until there is nothing left?
Premier Wynne has a choice:
Promote a disastrous dead-end privatization scheme.
OR
Create a responsible, long-term plan for transit funding that includes ongoing revenues from our public Hydro One and revenues raised by cancelling multi-billion dollar corporate tax cuts.
Privatization rips off future generations
Even during the Great Depression and World War II, governments did not sell off our hydro utilities. Has the Premier forgotten that our electrical system is a precious public asset that has been passed on from generation to generation?
Privatization means one less lever to fight climate change
Ontario needs public electrical utilities — with effective environmental programs that are not distorted by the thirst for private profit.
Does Premier Wynne want to be remembered as a sellout to private interests?
Unless the Premier listens to the people and scraps her plans, we will witness a terrible turning point in the province’s history. Kathleen Wynne and the Liberal Party of Ontario are bowing to Bay Street pressure. The privatization of Hydro One would accelerate the selloff of virtually everything that is now owned by the public.
Together we can save public power!
Over a hundred years ago, the people of Ontario took to the streets to break the stranglehold of private power companies and establish a public electricity system. CUPE Ontario calls on the people of Ontario to stand up again — to defeat Premier Wynne’s disastrous privatization scheme. Tell the Premier she is totally wrong on privatization. Raise this issue now with your MPP and everywhere in your community.
Visit www.keephydropublic.ca for information about campaign actions to defeat privatization.
IMPORTANT NEWS
Lawyers retained by CUPE have determined that Premier Wynne’s privatization plan violates Ontario law!
