Utilities

[Rainrider22]

One thing not yet discussed - it seems this move is in response to other recent amalgamations of local hydros. The big case is a utility called Alectra - which now fits much of York Region, Brampton, Mississauga, Hamilton, St. Catherines, and much of Simcoe County under its umbrella.

IIRC, none of those Utilities were publicly owned.  I know in fact that Hamilton (Horizon Utilities) wasn't publicly owned, as I used to live in The Hammer.

The thing I do not like about mega corps, is that they have less leniency in dealing with account holders that might be struggling. And cities lack the ability to fix major issues (like an ice storm event) when they come up.

Though it's probably OK if you've been always used to privately owned businesses like this. Your bill MIGHT go down a little, but there will be no money to the coffers for things like community centres or pools, or in Waterloo's case, RIM Park. Not that these businesses don't help, but the cities have little control on how any help is spent.

I'd have no issues with a merger if Kitchener-Wilmot hydro had been already privatized. But that's not the case.

IIRC, only Kingston and Kitchener own all of their utilities.

Kitchener Utilities turns over their profit to the city of Kitchener.  Another benefit we cant give up..