Only a banker could dream up this one. Former TD Bank head Ed Clark insists on the Ontario government selling electricity distribution to private sector people who could then make a profit from other people who would have no choice but to buy their electricity from them. We have it on the authority of none other than the Ontario Minister of Energy that these people can charge whatever they want because nobody understands energy costs anyway.
And these entrepreneurs do not have to worry about the capital cost of the distribution system they buy. Any bank in Canada will loan them whatever it costs for such a sure thing. This is what is so wonderful about free enterprise.
And look at the benefits to our provincial government. It gets the voters off their backs about energy costs. They can now blame free enterprise. And the cherry on top of that dessert is the $2 billion to $3 billion the province gets to put into other projects. It is not as though it would be used to pay down hydro debt—which the voters already pay each month on their energy bills.
And you cannot look to the news media to help in this. Most of them believe that free enterprise is good—even if it is a monopoly—and that public ownership is bad. The media are under the impression that free enterprise is responsive and that public servants are not. That is because the news media never seem to have to deal with companies such as Bell Canada or Rogers.
Could you imagine having Bell Canada as your distributor of electricity? The company would let the system deteriorate while charging you more each month. And just try to get any money back when there is a few days outage because of the deteriorating systems.
This idea of selling the distribution systems is from the same banker who tells the government to not sell the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. This is an area that desperately needs some competition. If Ontario sold the LCBO, consumers might get a price break occasionally while the government would earn more in taxes. There is guaranteed to be no break for the consumers if the government sells the monopoly electricity distribution systems.
And after almost 100 years of being screwed by the Beer Store monopoly, Ontario citizens know better. Where is William Lyon Mackenzie when you really need him?
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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