The headline on the media release reads, “Alectra selling its shares in Collus PowerStream to Collingwood.” What it should add is that Collingwood residents and taxpayers were betrayed by members of their own council and administration. After a three-year campaign to screw us, The Block have won a major victory in abhorrent behaviour. They are privatizing our electrical utility and next year will do the same to our water/wastewater utility, to the same corporation.
Our publicly-owned utility will be sold to EPCOR, an out-of-province, for-profit corporation that pays a dividend to the city of Edmonton only, and that will raise our electricity rates as soon as they are allowed. Our utility will be privatized within a year, with no local control, no local representation, no local input. And it’s all been done to us behind closed doors.
What will Collingwood get from the sale? Basically nothing, once all the legal fees, consultant fees, taxes and kickbacks are paid. We will have lost everything just to satisfy some personal vendettas.
In fact, with the changes made to staff, to departments and the termination of the shared services agreement, and the skyrocketing legal and consulting costs approved by The Block and this administration, operating costs are already escalating. Your taxes will be raised significantly to pay for their vile acts.
It is a devastating blow to the hardworking staff in Collus-PowerStream. It will be devastating and extremely costly to residents once the deal is finalized. This is the lowest moment in our town’s history. It goes way beyond merely being unethical and immoral: it has the stench of corruption about it.
The media release adds,
Alectra’s decision to sell was made after the energy company received a “buy-sell” notice from the Town of Collingwood on October 23, 2017. After careful consideration, Alectra decided that the prudent course of action was to relinquish its shares in the utility that serves approximately 18,000 customers located in Collingwood, Stayner, Creemore and Thornbury.
The Block and our administration never even informed, let alone consulted, residents here or in any of the other neighbouring municipalities why they wanted to ruin our community or why they felt an innovative, successful and efficient partnership that paid a dividend was worth sacrificing for a no-dividend private sale. They have connived and schemed behind closed doors since their first month in office.
If you agree that this process has not served the interests of our community, that it has not been in the interests of the greater good, that it should be investigated, then please send an email to the Ontario Energy Board (consumerrelations@oeb.ca) expressing your concerns and asking for a full investigation.
We have been so screwed by this group this term that we may never recover. Collingwood deserves MUCH better than them.
