by Eugene Plawiuk

In July the City Council in Edmonton defeated an attempt by Mayor Bill Smith and right wing councillors to sell off the city owned power company; EPCOR by one vote. The 7-6 vote against privatization clearly showed that mobilization by community, seniors and labour activists had an impact in swinging undecided Councillors to vote against privatization.

The public campaign to save EPCOR was sparked last year with the release of a $300,000 pro-privatization study done by RBC Dominion securities. The issue was raised during the October municipal election when city council refused to fund an independent study by the Parkland Institute who had challenged the RBC study. During the election city council candidates were surveyed by the Better Edmonton coalition on where they stood on the issue of privatizing EPCOR and its water utility; AquAlta. At that time six of the current council members came out opposed to the sale of EPCOR.

The EPCOR debate was postponed until the spring when public hearings were held over the issue. Civic unions and community groups lobbied and raised funding for the Parkland study to counter the RBC Dominion pro-privatization report.

The Parkland study: Light Among the Shadows, The Re-Regulation of the Electrical Industry and the Future of EPCOR by Kevin Taft (http://www.ualberta.ca/~parkland/epcor.html) was released challenging the pro-privatization propaganda being pushed by some city council members and EPCOR directors. Further lobby efforts forced city council to postpone a vote on the issue till July. At that time the Mayor, Bill Smith, made a motion that the council support privatizing EPCOR.

Edmonton Vision 20/20 a public lobby comprised of business people, seniors, former City Counselors, community activist, labour representatives and Edmonton community residents, all of whom care about Edmonton's positive growth and future, as well as a Better Edmonton and the Coalition of Civic Unions began mobilizations and public hearings on EPCOR.

A broad coalition formed called EPCARE which unified the variety of coalitions fighting privatization.  The city did little between April and the July vote.  The public and coalitions were the activists holding meetings and demonstrations opposing the mayors motion.

In the first two weeks of July increased pressure was put on city council when the Parkland Institute issued a research report showing that RBC Dominion was promoting EPCOR as a blue chip asset for the city. RBC was seen as wanting it both ways.

ND MLA Raj Pannu wrote an open letter to the city council. "I wrote Council because uncertainty resulting from changes at the provincial level are causing the City to consider selling EPCOR," said Pannu. "As an Edmonton MLA I wanted Council to know there is a solid business case for retaining ownership of EPCOR," he added.  "Council should not feel pressured into making a hasty decision to sell Epcor, especially not before Edmontonians are meaningfully consulted," concluded Pannu.

The public hearings, Parklands attack on RBC Dominions apparent conflict of interest in EPCOR, and the lobbying efforts visibly upset Mayor Smith. As the day of the vote got closer Smith began ranting in the press about an organized conspiracy against him and his motion to privatize.

The public packed the city council meeting July 15, and held demonstrations outside. The debate took most of the day with backroom lobbying winning over one undecided councilor to the anti-privatization side.

While EPCOR will now not be offered for sale, nothing stops city council from coming back a year from now and bringing forth a motion to privatize. Former Mayor Ivor Dent told activists demonstrating outside city hall that the only protection against privatization was to insure that city assets like EPCOR could not be sold without going to a city wide plebiscite.