A public forum is being held in Owen Sound Monday night on the Ontario government move to sell off a big portion of Hydro One.
Former NDP MPP Rosario Marchese has been at the front of the campaign against the sale, and he will be speaking at 7pm at the BDO Building at 1717 2nd avenue east.
Marchese says the sale of Hydro One assets will help the Province balance the budget this year, but over the long haul we will be losing over $500,000 of steady revenue.
That he says is a loss for future generations.
OPSEUs We Own It Campaign and the Youth Wing of the Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound NDP are teaming up to host the public forum.
Questions being posed tonight include: Will hydro fees go back up? What is the true cost of privatization? Will quality of service suffer once Hydro is in private hands?
In 2014, Ontarios auditor general found that financing 74 infrastructure projects through private-public partnerships cost Ontarians at least $8 billion more than if they had been financed and built publicly.
OPSEU members who have worked in privatized facilities generally find that, in order to make a satisfactory profit margin, something else has to give the quality of service or jobs often both.
