Consultations up for approval
Plan to hold town hall meetings on potential sale of PDI before city council Monday
A plan to run a series of public meetings in November over the possible sale of the city-owned utility is coming before council for final approval Monday.
The idea is to have city staff run the meetings – not its Toronto consultant, Navigant, which wanted to charge the city $120,000 to do the job.
Councillors rejected that idea last week, and voted to have city staff do the work instead.
For months, council has been thinking of selling the city-owned hydro distribution company, Peterborough Distribution Inc. (PDI), to Hydro One.
When an offer is received, the board that oversees PDI is expected to review it and make a recommendation to council about whether to sell.
No such recommendation has been made yet, but it’s expected soon: City CAO Allan Seabrooke told councillors last week it could happen by Nov. 1.
If so, council could be ready to make a decision by early December.
In the meantime, councillors want to run public meetings in each of the city’s five wards to ensure the public is informed about the possible sale – and have a chance to offer feedback too.
Councillors approved this public-engagement plan last week; they must ratify it on Monday for it to be carried out.
Before the final vote on Monday, citizens can come tell councillors how they feel about the prospect of these public meetings.
One citizen, Marie Bongard, pre-registered to speak in front of council. But you don’t have to register ahead: You can simply show up and speak to council.
The sale of PDI is expected to net about $50 million for the city, money that could be invested to create a revenue stream.
But the idea hasn’t been popular with the public; many people are concerned that a sale will mean hydro bills will increase by a lot.
The public meetings in each of the wards would take place between Nov. 1 and 10.
Seabrooke explained to councillors last week that they won’t be town hall meetings, where people hear a presentation and then speak up about it.
Instead, these will be public information meetings where people drop in, read information from placards and fill out comment cards if they want to offer input.
There will also be other means for people to learn more about the possible sale and give feedback: There will be a Twitter town hall, an information booth travelling to public events and a phone line people can call to give their opinion via voicemail.
Navigant won’t have anything to do with these public outreach efforts.
But when a recommendation is made from PDI’s board, Navigant will be expected to evaluate it for council.
The city has already paid Navigant $22,000 to write a report on the state of the hydro industry.
The consultant will get paid more when it evaluates the board’s recommendation (council has set a budget of up to $33,000 to spend, in total, on Navigant’s services).
Meanwhile the city has already spent about $120,000 on legal fees as it negotiates a deal with Hydro One.
Don’t forget to check The
Examiner’s website on Monday for livestreaming of the meeting. There’s also live-blogging and tweets on the website. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.
NOTE: See more city council coverage on Pages A1, A2 and A6.