Post-deregulation hydro rates will jump 20 per cent: Hampton

"People across the province will pay and pay and pay"

Welland Tribune - March 3, 2002
By Mark Tayti

Provincial NDP leader Howard Hampton delivered some shocking revelations Monday about the future of hydro in Ontario.

His somber message -- warning of rising hydro rates -- came as a jolt to more than 125 people who crammed into a tiny lecture hall at Centennial Secondary School.

Hampton is currently travelling the province to offer up his version of what life in Ontario will be like when the hydro market opens May 1, 2002.

His visit to Welland was sponsored by the Niagara Centre NDP Riding Association and the Welland and District Labour Council.

Offering bleak predictions, Hampton said hydro rates will rise by 20 per cent by the end of this summer if the Progressive Conservative government goes through with its promise to deregulate the market.

He said residents here will "be paying American rates within three years" if the plan is allowed to proceed.

Despite the looming deadline, Hampton said the government's plans can be stopped.

"The movement to stop privatization is growing," he said. "The Ontario Electricity Coalition is putting on meetings across the province. Eighty per cent of the people polled say there should be a provincial election to decide this issue."

The NDP leader said once Premier Mike Harris steps aside, the new PC leader will have "no mandate" from the people of Ontario. Rumblings of a post-leadership election have already begun, he added.

Hampton said the NDP will buy back hydro assets should it ever be in a position to call the shots at Queen's Park.

In the meantime, he said residents must fight to keep the publicly-owned utility out of the hands of "Enron clones."

"People across the province will pay and pay and pay," he said.

"They will pay with higher rates and they will pay with their jobs." Hampton said he has been sounding the alarm about hydro for the past two years, but residents are only now beginning to take notice.

"It's very difficult to get people excited about an abstract idea, but when it starts to hit their pocketbook, people start waking up."

Even people who would call themselves Progressive Conservatives are upset about it, he added.

"We have to threaten the government at the ballot box and show them their hold on political power could be lost over this issue."