Hydro One Sale

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nobbie48 said:
A three dollar toll on the NY Thruway on my last bike trip would have cost eighteen dollars on the 407 doing the same miles without a transponder. To be fair, land acquisition costs would be different on the highways.
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Maybe it's the same and our exchange rate is worse than we thought?
 
One of the failed logic in these situations is that the private sector does things better so it will be run cheaper. On the surface this sounds pretty good.

The problem with something like hydro is this will be a monopoly (more or less) and there is no motivation to be better, in fact the motivation will to be worse because there is no threat of real competition--might as well maximize waste and corporate bloat. Managers will build even larger empires under them and the consumers will just have to pay for it. Someone can sell bulk energy into the grid but no one can just build a new parallel grid to drive real competition.

Things like privatizing garbage collection does work because the contract expires and if you have too much waste (no pun intended) you will get under bid and you lose the contract.

Overall I think it is a dumb idea, if the argument is ROI on the money saved by less congestion. Just add another few billion to the debt and get it done. Keep the hydro profits coming in to help pay that debt off and still get the ROI from less congestion.
 
If there was a way to actually track and be accountable for the money generated I'd be more OK with the idea. However, knowing the government will salivate like crazy when they see all this extra money, they'll burn through it and we'll be in the same (or worse) condition than we are now.

Also, there's zero competition to force the new owners to actually keep pricing low and try to be more efficient. There's enough waste as is, and any efficiency in the system will NOT go to the population benefit, it'll go to the shareholders benefit in terms of greater revenue and profits for the company.

I'm against this simply for lack of accountability. It's a bloated pig as is...but it's our bloated pig! And I want a job there to join the sunshine list!
 
If the Liberals actually had a plan in the foreseeable future with regards to how they would spend the money to reduce traffic congestion. Then at least we would know where the money is going. The Liberals are basically on a 4 year contract themselves. They couldn't care less if what they are proposing actually happens with regards to future infrastructure upgrades. All they are concerned is how fast they can make the books look better and then use it as an excuse to say see we reduced the debt come next election. They are basically using the sale of Hydro to pay off the hundreds of millions they wasted on the gas plant scandel.

Any measurable infrastructure project that will benefit us directly will take years to plan, design , construct. You think they will actually set aside this money from the sale until that happens? Sure they will buy a couple of buses , streetcars , upgrade a bridge here and there. But nothing at the same scale as say a new 407 highway. My opinion is its a bad idea because we can't guarantee they will actually spend the money where they say they will. I also don't like seeing the potential of foreign investments taking control of something such as our hydro grid. Take a look at how that 407 100 year lease to a Spanish consorteum is working out. Why do you think the next section of 407 is now owned by the Province and not privately owned. This sale of our publicly owned utilities is bad idea on all sides for us.
 
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If anyone thinks selling Hydro One will stop the scoundrels at the top of it from writing themselves massive paycheques they are dreaming. People are using less hydro these days because of the rise of new LED bulbs that use only a tiny fraction of the current of the old incandescent lights. This has led to an unforeseen drop in hydro consumption and the necessity to raise hydro rates. I hardly use any hydro but still get hit with a $35 "delivery charge". Some people are setting up solar panels and more and more are cancelling their hydro because of it. New nanobatteries under development promise to revolutionize the world almost the way the internet did. I think that has the government worried. Will privatization work? One thing good about it is that the government will not be on the hook when it all falls apart. The firm will simply go bankrupt, (but likely just jack the rates) end of story.

Beware of the stories that appear in the Toronto Star. They are an agenda-based publication and their journalism is full of distortions. Get the story from a few different newspapers to get a more thorough perspective (National Post, Globe and Mail, etc.).
 
I hate monopolies on anything. Does anyone remember when Bell was the only game in town for phone service?
 
I remember how much was made on Bell stocks back when they were a blue chip option and if hydro ones new owners are publicly traded I'll buy into that on first offering.

Smaller utility companies like blue horizon and Oakville hydro are efficient little corporations with diversified investment and responsibility. Hydro one is the same collection of goofs that tanked Ontario Hydro, it should be sold off.
 
crankcall said:
I remember how much was made on Bell stocks back when they were a blue chip option and if hydro ones new owners are publicly traded I'll buy into that on first offering.

Smaller utility companies like blue horizon and Oakville hydro are efficient little corporations with diversified investment and responsibility. Hydro one is the same collection of goofs that tanked Ontario Hydro, it should be sold off.
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Hydro has been poorly run from the top for so long that the rot has permeated to all levels. If you try to cut away all the bad parts all you will end up with is a dirty knife.
 
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