Peterborough chapter activist Roy Brady is challenging MPP Jeff Leal to speak against the sale of PDI.
Council of Canadians Peterborough chapter activist Roy Brady is calling on Liberal MPP Jeff Leal to speak out against the proposed sale of Peterborough Distribution Inc. (PDI) to Hydro One.
PDI is the city-owned electricity distribution system.
In a letter to the editor published in Peterborough This Week, Brady writes, “An Environics poll commissioned by CUPE Ontario has revealed a 92 per cent public disapproval of the sale. Why is this sale still on the table? One reason is the direct pressure from the Provincial Government for the consolidation of local and regional distribution companies for hopeful savings. Yet it is clearly the generation of electricity in Ontario, which is the responsibility of the Provincial Government, that has escalated the rates for Ontario’s ratepayers, certainly not the local distribution companies such as PDI.”
Brady then highlights, “So, to explain this provincial attack on our local utility company, where is our MPP Jeff Leal, who just happens to be a cabinet minister? What is Mr. Leal’s position on a forced sale of PDI or the direct pressure from his government to manipulate a sale to Hydro One? Historically, he has strongly supported local utilities, but now? And it is Hydro One, an Ontario megacorporation gradually being privatized, that is making the offer to purchase. Local control would therefore be lost. Also, what is Mr Leal’s position on the privatization of Hydro One itself? Will his government back off from interference with local utilities, or will the local distribution company only be the first victim?”
Brady concludes, “Speak up, Mr. Leal, to protect local energy control and to deter privatization in Ontario’s electricity system.”
The Council of Canadians has also been asking our supporters to write Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne through this action alert to demand that she rescind her plans to privatize Hydro One.
For additional blogs about the Peterborough chapter opposing the sale of PDI, please click here.
