PETERBOROUGH, ON – Today’s announcement that Hydro One has backed out of the deal to buy Peterborough Distributions Inc. (PDI) is good news for the people of Peterborough, says CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn.
90 percent of people in Peterborough were against the sale of city’s electricity provider and the approval to move forward with the sale only passed at city council by one vote.
“The people of Peterborough were strongly against selling off PDI because they knew the negative affects of the sale would have been felt for generations to come,” says Fred Hahn, President of CUPE Ontario. “Now Peterborough will retain full control over their hydro system and the city will continue to be able to generate critical ongoing revenue that’s needed to fund local services.”
Ontario’s Financial Accountability Officer (FAO) recently released a damning report that proved that the privatization of Hydro One was bad for the people of Ontario.
The report uncovered that the loss of the on-going revenue and the end of annual payments-in-lieu of taxes will result in a $1.1 billion loss in government revenue next year and hundreds of millions more each year from 2019 to 2025.
“These kind of sales always come with all kinds of great promises but the truth is they are never about what’s good for people, they are only about generating profits,” says Hahn. “Because of the pressure from the people of Peterborough, Hydro one was forced to include promises to sweeten the PDI deal. And I bet that when they ran the numbers Hydro One realized their profits were at risk and they bailed. And I bet the people of Peterborough are likely jumping for joy at the news.”
CUPE is Ontario’s community union, with more than 260,000 members providing quality public services we all rely on, in every part of the province, every day. CUPE Ontario members are proud to work in social services, health care, municipalities, school boards, universities and airlines.
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For more information contact: Sarah Jordison, CUPE Communications, 416-578-5638
www.cupe.on.ca
