Officially, we are not having a discussion about selling off all or some of Toronto Hydro, a profitable utility of which the people of Toronto are the sole owner. Not yet, anyway.

The latest bit of Toronto Hydro news, is, according to a statement from the mayor’s office, “another example of how we need to make up for lost time and part of that is having an honest discussion with the people of Toronto about how we plan to pay for it. Later this month, the city manager will release a report that will look at the financial health of our city, and what steps we can take to move forward. The mayor awaits that report.”

An “honest discussion” is needed, staff are studying options, the mayor “awaits that report” before taking any positions — this is a variation on what he’s been saying for months.

But if we’re going to have an honest discussion, we should note that over the same months that we’ve officially not been having this debate, the management of Hydro, and the board members the mayor appointed to act as our shareholder representatives, and a lot of people closely connected to the mayor, have been preparing to sell the thing.

This latest bit of news, for starters, sure looks like an attempt by management and the board to put their fingers on the scale in preparation for the certainly-coming argument. The news is that, in direct violation of their shareholder mandate, Hydro will no longer deliver half of its profit back to the city — an amount that was anticipated at $60 million this year. Instead it will deliver $25 million, leaving a $35 million hole in a city operating budget that is scheduled to be launched within the next month.

The move was approved by a board that includes Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong (on the record as personally thinking “There’s a great deal of un-monetized value in Toronto Hydro”), former Tory campaign director of operations Tamara Kronis, and other Tory loyalists. The incoming chair of that board, David McFadden, is a long-established pro-privatization advocate.

And it just so happens that one of the main arguments against selling off Hydro, which may generate $1.5 billion in a partial sale, is that it reliably delivers annual revenue to the city budget in the form of profit. Choking off the revenue seems like a possible strategy to undercut that argument.

This theory about the intention behind the move has been waved away by both the Hydro CEO and board chair, who claim instead that it has to do with funding upgrades to the power grid. This bit about needing to fund improvements to energy infrastructure, it so happens, is a mayoral talking point — Tory made reference to it earlier this year in a speech specifically about the city’s need for new revenue tools. Now, most of us thought the money needed to fund those upgrades was mostly dealt with when the province approved a rate increase that took effect in May — a rate increase that has ramped up profits under the stated justification of funding these improvements to the power grid.

If it’s a measure to shore up cash flow to enable capital borrowing, as management and board claim, why the hell is the city just finding out about it weeks before its budget process? Even the Hydro spokesperson, in a statement published in the Toronto Sun, acknowledged “this isn’t a new issue.” We’re talking about an amount of money equivalent to a 1.5 per cent property tax increase. Why would you wait until the eleventh hour to spring the news you needed that money on your shareholders, who you knew full well were banking on that money in their own plans?

Blazing incompetence might be one explanation: that you didn’t realize you would need the money to secure long-planned 40-year loans until the last minute.

Alternately, strategy might be another explanation: that a report considering the possible sale of Hydro is expected next week, and the news that the goose isn’t laying golden eggs like she used to might help spin the contents of that report.

Or maybe it’s all in opponents’ heads. Maybe, as Councillor John Campbell has said, realizing how much the Hydro revenue is missed will bolster the argument against selling any part of it and losing that revenue permanently.

But it certainly feels like the stage is being set. Hydro management, reportedly hired senior Tory campaign officials Bob Richardson and Nick Kouvalis as privatization consultants. The board is filled with mayoral loyalists, and its incoming chair has previously led pro-energy-privatization groups. The mayor’s staff, with or without his participation, have reportedly been discussing privatization behind closed doors since they arrived in office.

I don’t know whether selling off part of Hydro is a good idea — I think generally profitable public utility monopolies are better left in public hands, but there could be sound arguments for a minority ownership sale that leaves the public in control while producing upfront and long-term benefits. If some think it is worth pursuing, we should have, as the mayor is so fond of saying, an “honest discussion.”

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But seeing virtually all the powerful figures involved engage in a cloak-and-dagger privatization effort while claiming we all need to wait for a report seems like a bizarre way to launch an honest discussion. It seems, honestly, like an attempt to force a conclusion to the discussion before it’s begun.