Residents concerned about the high price of electricity heard from local MPPs Tuesday evening.
The meeting took place at Saint Mary's Church in Maidstone.
NDP representatives Lisa Gretzky, Taras Natyshak and Percy Hatfield held a town hall meeting discussing electricity costs, privatization and community action.
They also had a key note speaker who said "we are in trouble, we need to fight back."
“My view is privatization is idiotic,” says Rosario Marchese, chair of the Coalition Against Privatization. “We haven't been able to stop the government yet they've already sold 30 per cent my message to this community is we can continue fighting we must continue fighting until we persuade the government to stop the next 30 per cent of hydro one.”
Marchese is the chair of the coalition against privatization.
He says the group is trying to gather people who are animated and inspired to continue against privatization.
Marchese says historically the province used to have a public hydro system for almost a hundred years.
He says we lost that in 1999 when Mike Harris was in power and decided to de-regulate the market and privatize it.
He believes rates go through the roof because of this and businesses can't afford it, as well individual customers.
Marchese says the government is under selling hydro one and they were to ever buy it back, it would cost $20-30 billion to buy 60 per cent of hydro one.
“Once that public asset is going we're never going to get it back so not only do you lose the ability to control it to reform it to fix it, but you lose the revenue you would have ever garnered over the hundred years that we've owned hydro distribution in Ontario,” says Marchese.
Marchese adds should hydro sell the 60 per cent privately, the government would basically be handcuffed from ever buying it back
