November 26, 2002
Kamloops Daily News



Who do you believe? 

Richard Neufeld, B.C. Minister of Energy and Mines,  
In response to what he calls the "frenzied speculation" 
about B.C. Hydro, said in his letter to The Daily News
"All of the Crown corporation's existing generation,
transmission, and distribution assets -- all the wires and
dams -- will continue to be owned by the people of British
Columbia (November 14)."

On the same day, B.C. Liberal Paul Nettleton said the
opposite. He said that his government's  secret plans are to
privatize B.C. Hydro.  The Liberal's  "ultimate goal is the
wholesale privatization of the utility," he said in his
letter to colleagues.  Honesty doesn't pay, as Nettleton
found after he was tossed out of the Liberal caucus.

Regardless of who you believe, the horse is already out of
the barn. You will notice that Minister Neufeld carefully
avoids mention of privatization of B.C. Hydro' customer
service.  That's because it has already been done.  The
Liberals have handed one-third of B.C. Hydro over to a
company with a dubious track record called Accenture.

Accenture will "assume BC Hydro's Customer Services . . . IT
services provided by Westech, Network Computing Services, HR
Services, Financial Systems, Purchasing, Disbursement
Services, Property Services, Business and Office Services,"
according to B.C. Hydro's web site.

Accenture has been blacklisted by California's state
treasurer for questionable business practices such as
relocating to offshore tax havens.  Accenture, recently
known as Anderson Consulting, is a multinational consulting
company based in Bermuda which has come under fire for its
dealings in jurisdictions across North America.

The Ontario Auditor General slammed Accenture and the
Ontario government in 2001 for a deal to take over a
government program which resulted in massive cost over-runs. 
The government paid Accenture $193 million to slash their
welfare system. The B.C. Liberals should have known of
Accenture's sleazy background.

"The BC government should follow California's lead and stop
the deal to take over key services from BC Hydro," says Rudy
Lawrence, a spokesperson for the B.C. Citizens for Public
Power.  You may have seen their ads in the Daily News. 

They want support for a class action lawsuit against the
government of B.C. to prevent them from privatizing and
deregulating B.C. Hydro. The supporters of the B.C. Citizens
for Public Power include the Union of B.C. Municipalities,
the Council of Canadians, Labour, seniors, consumers, 
environmentalists, and community groups. 

Social Credit premier W.A.C. Bennett had the vision to
expropriate the existing power utility in 1961 and create
B.C. Hydro.  It belongs to the citizens of B.C. and the
Liberals have no right to give it away.

Just what are Liberals trying to fix when they meddle with
our dam power?  "What is it that's broke with a system
that's providing cheap, reliable electricity, that's paying
sizeable dividends to the government?" says David Freeman,
energy expert and chair of the California Power Authority.

Ideology is your answer, Mr. Freeman.  B.C. Hydro
represents a socialist threat in the mind of Premier
Campbell.  It wouldn't matter that we have cheapest, best
run electrical utility in North America.  Don't confuse
Campbell with the facts.

The facts differ from ideology, as the Conservative
government of Ontario is finding out.  After allowing
private marketing of electricity, the cost has skyrocketed
for homeowners and business alike.

Ontario restaurant owner Mike Jaznik's last hydro bill was
$5,000 -- twice what it was before.  "We just can't turn
around and increase our prices, and we can't, we certainly
can't eat the prices. It just doesn't make sense," says
Jaznik.

No, it doesn't make sense until you realize that right-wing
governments are willing to sacrifice well run public
utilities in the altar of ideology.
 
You would have thought that Ontario would have learned
something from Alberta's experience. "They're botching it up
in ways similar to the way we botched it up," Frank Atkins,
an economist at the University of Calgary.

Alberta broke up the province's three power monopolies
starting in 1996, promising  lower prices and more stable
supplies. Albertans saw their power bills triple. The
province gave consumers a rebate for a year to cushion the
blow, but prices are still unstable and high.

"We keep asking the question, 'why do governments keep doing
it?'" says Jim Walkawich of the Edmonton Consumers
Association.

Ideology is your answer, Jim.

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