Alan Pickersgill - The View From Here

(July 8) - Bigger is not always better. Sometimes it is, but not usually. I don’t think bigness helped children get a better education when the school boards were merged. Our local credit union didn’t become better when it became Meridian. It is unlikely that our hydro delivery will improve after it is swallowed by Horizon Utilities.

The Upper Grand District School Board was formed 10 years ago by amalgamating the Wellington County Board of Education with Dufferin. This happened during the Mike Harris years. Even though the former Premier was a former teacher, quality of education was never a priority with his government. It was all about cutting services and taxes. The merger shifted control of the system further away from local citizens. Guelph ended up with fewer trustees.

Amalgamation didn’t make teachers’ jobs any easier. Nor did it improve the education received by students. In this one, bigger was worse.

The Credit Union growth is a bit more complex. I’ve been a member for over 35 years. When I joined, it was in a basement office on College Ave. It went through a series of mergers, ending in a great big one in 2005. Meridian is now the biggest credit union in Ontario. The head office is in St. Catharines. Service at the two Guelph branches is still exceptional, and it will always be better than a chartered bank. Credit Unions are financial co-operatives, owned and controlled by members. When the Meridian merger was put to a vote, I was one of the minority who said no.

Becoming huge made it stronger, but not better. Neither did it get worse. In this case, bigger was relatively neutral.

Now we are staring down the throat of a Hydro buy out. Something the stock markets would call a hostile take over.

At the moment, the citizens of Guelph own Guelph Hydro. Horizon Utilities came along with an offer to purchase before we’d even begun thinking of selling. This is the company that was born when Hamilton Hydro bought St. Catharines Hydro. They are also trying to buy Brant County Power.

The provincial government wants fewer electricity distribution companies in Ontario, and Horizon is aggressively trying to make it happen. It wants to be the diner, but do we want to be the dinner?

In this age of increasing environmental awareness, this is the wrong direction for an electrical utility. It should not be moving towards a monolith that has been immunized against local control. Instead of this, we should have a network of community based distribution outlets that can work together co-operatively. That’s the best way to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. The job of government is to supply the tools to make this happen.

City council is studying a business case put forward by Horizon. We don’t know what’s in it because property deals are always done in camera. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s strangely appropriate that an electrical connection is being made with the lights off.

Some reports have Horizon offering a million or more dollars. Others have them promising a 20 per cent rate reduction that is really only four per cent. None of it matters.

Any good salesman can dress a hog in an evening gown and make it look beautiful. But underneath it is still a hog. Our councillors should be able to see through the slick sales pitches and look at what they’re getting. They should be wise enough to know one thing.

If we want to leave a smaller footprint, we have to start wearing smaller boots.

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Everyone in Guelph is excited and happy that Sister Christine has been recognized with the Order of Canada. She deserves it much more that some of the people who were recognized in the past. She certainly has much more merit than Conrad Black. Black’s award should have been called back the minute he was led out of a Chicago courtroom in handcuffs. There is no reason for him to be treated any more leniently than was Alan Eagleson when he went to prison.

There is something very disturbing about the image of Black sitting down for breakfast in his Florida penitentiary with an Order of Canada medal hanging on his lapel. There is something equally refreshing about Sister Christine serving breakfast with one hanging on her apron.