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This so Wynne could claim to balance the Ontario budget in the 2017-18 fiscal year, now heading back into deficit in 2018-19.

The sale itself was sharply criticized by Ontario’s independent, non-partisan, Financial Accountability Office (FAO) as a fiscal train wreck, in which the Wynne government had to change provincial law to divert $4 billion of the proceeds to government spending on infrastructure, as opposed to using all of the money to pay down Hydro One’s debt.

The FAO said while the sale would temporarily boost government revenues, over the long-term it would cost taxpayers more, mainly because of the reduced revenue stream the government (meaning taxpayers) will now get from Hydro One.

Essentially, what the Wynne government did was to sell the furniture to pay the mortgage, the problem being you can only sell the furniture once, while the mortgage comes due every year.

Since the Liberals sold majority control of Hydro One to the private sector, the utility has done things the Liberals would never have done when they owned it.

For example, buying part ownership of a giant, polluting American coal-fired power plant (after the Liberals eliminated coal use in Ontario in 2014).

Brian Donogh

Or proposing to have people falling behind on their skyrocketing electricity bills — such as seniors on fixed incomes who already have to choose between electricity and food — pay in advance, at a time when service disconnections are increasing. (Hydro One says this “Collection Enhancements” scheme would be optional.)