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“Let’s call the whole thing off”
TORONTO --
The Conservative Government may have a legal right to sell Hydro One, but
it does not have a moral right, said NDP Leader Howard Hampton after the
Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed the government's case today. "They've
lost in court and they've lost in the court of public opinion. Now the
Conservatives should abandon their drive to privatize and deregulate hydro
and instead heed the 72 per cent of Ontarians who don't want their public
power system sold," said the Kenora-Rainy River MPP. "It's
shameful that the Conservatives ignored the public outcry and passed Bill
58 to override the will of the people." The
Court of Appeal upheld an April 19 ruling by Justice Arthur Gans that the
government didn't have the legal authority to sell Hydro One after two
unions, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) and the Canadian
Union of Public Employees (CUPE), launched a legal challenge to the
planned sale. In the meantime, the Conservatives have used their
legislative majority to ram through Bill 58 that would allow them to
privatize the utility. But
Hampton says the new law has no credibility and should be rescinded.
"Selling any percentage of Hydro One will be the government's first
step in selling off our hydro system in its entirety," he said. Calling
the appeal court decision, "a victory for democracy", Hampton
notes it's important that the Gans decision stands. "It will make it
much harder for governments to sell assets without specific legislation
authorizing them to do so," he said. He
congratulated CEP and CUPE for pursuing the issue in court. "They
deserve a lot of credit. Their victory forced the Conservatives to
partially back down on their decision to sell Hydro One. Now we all have
to work extra hard to ensure that power stations as well as towers and
wires stay in public hands." Government
lawyers had argued, if Gans' ruling was upheld, it would not allow the
Government to privatize Ontario Power Generation given the wording
regarding OPG in Bill 58. The court declined to address that issue. Hampton
urged people to get involved in the NDP website campaign to stop hydro
privatization and deregulation at www.publicpower.ca . Media contact: Sheila White (416)
325-2503/ Daniel Bonin
(416)325-7324 |