Dirty deal

Dear editor:
Contrary to Conservative government claims, the coming and future electricity price increases have nothing to do with clearing past debt.
As Energy minister Jim Wilson has said repeatedly, and to a television audience again just weeks ago, the cost of retiring hydro’s debt is already built into our monthly electricity bills.
What’s driving up the price of electricity is the Conservatives’ plan to deregulate and privatize Ontario’s public power supply. They are driving up the price now to make it lucrative and attractive for the private sector to get involved.
Talk about a dirty deal! After saying for years that privatization would bring consumer prices down, the energy minister faced a dilemma in the light of reality. He needed to find a way to bring in the electricity price hikes early so his foolish sell-off wouldn’t be blamed for the sky-high prices the Tories have invited to Ontario with power privatization.
Nor can the Tories honestly claim these sudden meteoric increases stem from environmental clean-up costs. They are passing those costs on to the private sector. Or so they said.
There is a way to achieve new, clean sources of energy supply without relinquishing public control of our power supply, Ontario’s most valuable resource. Saying that electricity is just another commodity is like saying oxygen is just another gas.
Industry, homes, offices, hospitals, schools, citizens–all will feel the double-digit increases in electricity that are about to come from the government’s abandonment of our public power supply.
California, here we come!
In privatizing hydro, there’s too high a price to pay. People can find out the facts about electricity deregulation and the alternative by visiting our Web site at www.ontariondp.on.ca
Yours truly,
Howard Hampton
Ontario NDP leader