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Ontario is still selling Hydro One but not its provincial lotteries.

It’s selling the thing it should keep and keeping the thing it should sell, making two wrong decisions because the government needs the money.

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The Hydro One sale is carrying on in stages, one chunk at a time. The lottery disposal was scrapped last Friday when the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. decided it couldn’t make enough bank off contracting it out.

It got plenty of interest, the agency reported, but “after a period of due diligence and consultation with globally-experienced proponents, OLG has determined that the selection of a single service provider would not provide increased value for the province.”

“The province and the government looks at its assets and tries to maximize its value in a way that benefits all Ontarians,” Finance Minister Charles Sousa explained to the legislature Monday morning, answering questions from New Democrat MPP Jagmeet Singh. “The process by which the OLG was proceeding recognized that there was more value to the province to have it in-house because of the way it functions.”