[OPIRG-EVENTS] Electric power to the people

[david creighton <dcr8on@sympatico.ca>]

Please mark your calendar for a public presentation by the
Ontario Electricity Coalition on the problems of electricity
deregulation at:


                 First United Church
                 397 Kent Street at Florence
                 Ottawa

                 Date: Thursday, 14 March, 2002
                 Time: 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.

On May 1, the Ontario Government plans to open our electricity market to

competition. They have begun leasing and selling 65% of the power
generating
capacity of Ontario Power Generation, and plan to sell Hydro One. Both
were
formerly part of Ontario Hydro. New regulations have been introduced and

more are coming. What does all this mean for your taxes and hydro bills,
the
environment, and the reliability of electricity in the province? The
cost of
electricity impacts everything from the production of goods and
services, to
home and commercial utilities, and jobs.

What lessons can we learn from other jurisdictions, such as California,
Alberta,
Pennsylvania and the U.K.?  Both the Californian (a US$71 BILLION
rip-off)
and Alberta (supplementary payments to low income households)
experiences with privatisation unequivocally suggest that

- we can look forward  to huge energy price increases in Ontario
   if this goes through, and

- the burdens will fall increasingly on taxpayers, directly through
   increased energy costs and indirectly through increased social
fallout.

We believe this is a 'five alarm fire'. 22 US states have now pulled
back. We cannot allow ourselves to be held hostage or to be frozen in
the
dark. We must rethink the wisdom of allowing this to go through.

For further info please contact Hal Ade @ 225-1626

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