CUPE sues Wynne over Hydro One
Amajor union has followed through with its threat to sue Premier Kathleen Wynne and two cabinet ministers to halt the further privatization of Hydro One.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees, which issued a notice of intent to sue two months ago, filed the lawsuit in hopes of stopping the Liberal government from selling more shares in the Crown utility.
CUPE and opposition parties have raised concerns the sale will sacrifice a steady revenue stream from Hydro One into government coffers and drive up electricity rates.
“They should not proceed with any sale until this matter is resolved,” CUPE Ontario president Fred Hahn told a news conference Wednesday, a day after the suit was filed. He called Hydro One a “vital asset” that Wynne’s government has “no mandate to sell.”
The suit names Wynne, Finance Minister Charles Sousa and Infrastructure Minister Bob Chiarelli, all of whom held the energy portfolio when the decision was made to put 60 per cent of Hydro One on the market.
About half of those shares were sold to investors in offerings last November and in April as part of the government’s plan to raise $9 billion; $5 billion of this was slated for debt reduction and $4 billion to improve public transit.
CUPE claims the government was in a conflict in holding political fundraisers (including one event for which tickets cost $7,500 each) in which cabinet ministers hobnobbed with investment bankers vying for lucrative contracts to handle the privatization, earning their firms millions of dollars.
While the legislature last week passed fundraising reforms to eliminate what opposition critics called “cash for access,” the government has insisted nothing was illegal. Opposition parties hold similar fundraisers, where lobbyists and donors mingle with MPPs who could one day end up in government.
The Ministry of Energy said there was nothing improper about the fundraising, noting “the integrity commissioner has already reported on this matter and con- firmed that there was no wrongdoing.” Wynne said the money from the Hydro One sale is needed to help bankroll her government’s 12-year, $160-billion program to build more public transit lines, expand service on existing lines and upgrade bridges and roads across the province.
She has argued her administration is maintaining control of Hydro One, in which no private stakeholder is allowed to hold more than 10 per cent, while unlocking the value of the company to benefit citizens stuck in gridlock.