In total secrecy, the Mayor, City Council and EPCOR’s Board of Directors took EPCOR ownership from Edmontonians.
They pulled the plug on our ownership of EPCOR power generating assets.
They pulled the plug on citizens voting yes or no to ownership.
They pulled the plug on democracy and kept us in the dark before the decision to sell and for three weeks after.
Take Action for the Future of Our Power
Strong Message Delivered to City Council, and the Campaign Continues
On November 30 at City Hall, the Our Power Citizens Group delivered petitions signed by 7200 Edmontonians to the City Clerk, and delivered a strong message that we will honour those thousands of supporters by continuing the campaign to reclaim our power.
Despite having too few signatures to force a plebiscite, we consider the petition drive a success: we have taken great strides towards building a movement to hold City Council and EPCOR accountable leading up to next year’s municipal election.
The next phase of the campaign will be to put pressure on both incumbent and prospective councillors to adopt the following positions on this issue:
- Change the Municipal Shareholder’s Agreement so that no more publicly owned assets (such as water and wastewater) can be sold off in a similarly undemocratic fashion in the future, and
- Call for the City to reclaim its ownership of all power-generating assets serving Edmonton.
We will be taking a break over the holidays, but in January we will be renewing the call to reclaim our power! If you have any questions or would like to be involved actively in the next stage of the campaign, please contact us at (780) 406-9077 or info@ourpoweredmonton.ca.
Richard Zwicker speaks with the media as supporters gather at City Hall for the launch of the petition drive on October 1, 2009.
Why should we all be concerned:
- The decision affects every business operator, homeowner and renter in Edmonton as EPCOR’s electrical generating assets are reported to be worth approximately $5 billion dollars.
- In its 2008 Annual Report, EPCOR reported that it paid over $130 million in dividends and Edmonton taxes would have been 25% higher if the City had not owned EPCOR.
- Edmontonians are proud of their EPCOR, its employees, its service. We do not want to lose the quality and reliability of supply we have build and owned for 118 years.
- This is an issue of democracy — the true owners of EPCOR, the citizens of Edmonton, were never consulted on this plan and we are told that we cannot even see the details of the sale.