Big Brother

May 5, 2002

Big Brother

Enmax vote may be moot if Ralph flexes his muscles

Rick Bell

To sell or not to sell, that is the question. Or maybe not.

Oh, Calgary city council finally votes this Friday on whether to put Enmax, the taxpayer-owned electric company, on the auction block. The vote is too close to call.

But whatever our elected council does could all be for naught.

King Ralph may just come in and force the city to pull the plug on Enmax and hand the utility over to the highest bidder, no matter what the aldermen may think.

Who knows what can happen in Ralph's world?

But one thing is certain. There is much fear and some loathing at city hall over a new provincial document currently making the rounds.

The 27-page report proposes changes to a government regulation on the control of corporations, giving more power to the province's minister of municipal affairs.

One amendment, in particular, is raising eyebrows.

"The minister may set up a time period in which a municipality or group of municipalities must divest, amalgamate, merge, reorganize or wind-up a controlled corporation."

The government paper is still in the "consultation phase," but city officials are understandably nervous and seeking answers, especially with this Friday's vote looming.

This is but the latest wrinkle in a 10-month magical mystery tour where Enmax execs, with golden hasta la vista handshakes at the ready, continue to pull out all the stops for a sale, despite substantial public opposition to a deal.

The whole offensive is led by none other than no-non-sense Enmax board chairman George Cornish, a close personal friend of the premier and a man who ran the city as chief commissioner when Ralph was mayor.

Mayor Bronco, no supporter of the sale, is known to be busy poring over the provincial paper. The city is working on an official response to the province.

But the mayor is already concerned and would like some quick clarification.

"To have the sole discretion on what a large urban centre like Calgary can do, what business we will and will not be in, is alarming. Shouldn't that be up to the local citizenry and the council to make the decisions and face the consequences?" says the mayor.

"Is it back to a paternalistic relationship? Remember this city has been around longer than the province. The timing is surprising since the province has a committee currently underway to getaway from paternalistic relationships and give the cities more authority over their own affairs.

"Why are they floating this?" Why indeed.

The official explanation of the province is its desire to protect taxpayers from undue risk.

Brian Mason, an opposition MLA and a former Edmonton alderman who is taking the fight to the floor of the legislature, has a very different take.

"Why is the government doing this? They are pushing privatization. Calgary is having a debate on whether to sell Enmax but these regulations allow the province to sidestep municipal councils and order cities to sell anyway," says the mightily-miffed Mason.

"This is Big Brother at its worst. The scope of these proposals is the province knows best. I think municipal voters know best but these regulations sure don't reflect that."

Meanwhile, Ralph's deregulation of electricity, which has already cost multibillions and prompted the push for an Enmax sale, is facing more shot-circuits and snafus.

His own Tory MLAs are up in arms over the avalanche of new billing charges facing many mom-and-pop electricity consumers.

And new brown envelopes filled with more bad news reveal our power bills will get another yet-to-be-determined zap in the near future because of a shortfall of $345 million in some monstrosity called the balancing pool deferral account.

It never ends.

And you thought only the weather was bad.