June 13 2026 edition
Privatization coup at City Hall?
Welcome to the Kingston Labour News…
In this issue:
Headlines
Privatization coup at City Hall?
Invista slashes up to 100 jobs
SLC jobs massacre continues
News Briefs
Napanee public land sale stinks
At the Ontario Labour Board
Obituary: Jim Neill (1951-2026)
Privatization coup at City Hall?
City and Utilities bureaucrats plotted in secrecy
After going public at City Council in October and only conducting one public event in mid-April, City of Kingston senior management is pushing for approval of their radical “Municipal Services Corporation” scheme at City Council this Tuesday, June 16. This scheme to dissolve Utilities Kingston and place $3.2 billion in public water and waste water assets under control of a new corporation was initiated by City management with no democratic mandate from City Council.
City management’s push to create the MSC before the democratic scrutiny of the fall election comes only days after the public learned that City of Kingston and Utilities Kingston management began secretly planning the MSC in March 2024, nineteen months before it was brought to the attention of the public and City Council in October 2025.
The multinational corporate consulting firm, KPMG, was also brought in to develop the plan during this secret phase. A section of the KPMG report still remains secret from the public. This information about secret planning has come to light because of a freedom of information request made by Coalition of Kingston Communities via the Municipal Freedom of Information and Privacy Act.
Bill 60 and the Developers First agenda
The City of Kingston’s Chief Administrative Officer, Lanie Hurdle, and the other architects of the MSC brought forward their plan to the public and City Council in October 2025 - the very same same month Doug Ford’s government introduced the sprawling omnibus Bill 60.
Among its many changes, Bill 60 allows the Minister of Municipal Affairs to put for-profit corporations in charge of water and other essential public utilities. Despite this, Kingston’s Liberal Member of Provincial Parliament, Ted Hsu, has expressed support for the MSC. Whether Hurdle and other bureaucrats involved in the secret MSC planning were collaborating with the provincial government is a question that remains unanswered.
The Coalition of Kingston Communities also claims documents show unnamed private developers were engaged by City and Utilities Kingston officials after the MSC scheme was brought forward to City Council, all while City management had counseled against public input and instructed KPMG to keep the public in the dark during the secret phase of planning. According to CKC’s press statement, CAO Lanie Hurdle “repeatedly dismissed public input as unreasonable, confused and entrenched in ‘their own theories’.”
MSC = more debt = more taxes
Hurdle, Utilities Kingston management and KPMG argue that the MSC is needed to access greater loans for what they claim is an infrastructure deficit for Kingston’s water and wastewater infrastructure. They argue the MSC would be able to borrow money as a separate entity from the City of Kingston and borrow the money for longer. These claims also seem to be based on overly optimistic projections for population growth in Kingston which have been called dangerous and “ill-advised”.
The MSC would remove further democratic control by the City of Kingston, voters and taxpayers. Utilities Kingston, whose sole shareholder is the City of Kingston, would be dissolved into the MSC. However, taxpayers will still be paying for the MSC despite having much less or possibly no democratic input on the MSC! If the purpose of the MSC is to allow for greater borrowing, then Kingstonians can expect to pay down bigger debts for longer and likely facing rate hikes for water and other utilities. The MSC’s appointed board would have authority over budgeting and capital projects.
Kingston Labour News also notes that the MSC is being pushed just as the federal and provincial governments in Canada are pushing controversial “AI data centres” on municipalities. These facilities use huge amounts of water and electricity and, as proven in the United States, costs won’t be paid by Silicon Valley and rich investors, but by taxpayers and utility ratepayers.
Kingston Labour News will be following this story closely. Mayor Patterson has dismissed the CKC’s revelations despite the fact the public and City Council was not made aware of the Municipal Services Corporation proposal until the end of 2025 - nearly two years after City and Utilities Kingston management initiated the project without any democratic City Council mandate.
Editorial comment
The secret initiative by unelected senior management, the express desire to avoid public democratic scrutiny, and the present opportunistic rush to push through the MSC all fit the tactics of City Hall’s senior management, including CAO Lanie Hurdle, who are pushing an openly political agenda of privatizing and selling off public assets and land. Let’s not forget that City management, the Mayor, and City Council voted to sell off a $17 million piece of downtown public land for a single dollar to a private developer to build a conference centre beside the downtown stadium! Money is precious and hard to come by for public development but when it comes to private profit interests, there is no concern or objection.
The last time water privatization was attempted in Ontario by Premier Mike Harris, seven people died and over 2,000 became ill in the town of Walkerton. The world over, water privatization is a disaster for the public, a windfall for corporate owners, rich investors, and corrupt politicians taking the kickbacks.
The MSC proposal falls perfectly in line with Doug Ford’s Bill 60 which pushes privatization and taxpayer-financed debts for building the infrastructure of new private housing developments. After all, Mayor Paterson and senior City of Kingston management are backing this dubious population scheme to justify expanding the urban boundary for more private developments.
We encourage KLN readers to contact their Councillors to demand the undemocratic and secretive MSC plan be cancelled. Here are some suggestions for demands of City Councillors:
Vote down the MSC as a water and public infrastructure privatization scheme under the terms of Bill 60, and vote it down because it is an undemocratic initiative pursued by political actors occupying public management roles.
A workplace investigation into the conduct of the CAO and other senior City management as well as Utilities Kingston management, up to and including the dismissal of such managers, including CAO Lanie Hurdle.
Full disclosure of all documentation relating to MSC planning before and after October 2025.
A suspension of all future contracting with KPMG and the establishment of stricter and more openly democratic rules for conduct of third-party consultants and contractors. KPMG is proven to be an unethical, anti-democratic, for-profit outfit.
A Council motion opposing all water privatization and the use of any and all means to oppose any imposition of water and other public utilities privatization by the provincial government.
Invista slashes up to 100 jobs
Koch promised no cuts after Maitland closure
In early June, Kingston’s largest private sector employer announced it was wiping out upwards of 100 jobs with a recent claim by its American owners, Koch Industries, that they are restructuring. The job cuts, which have been reported between 68 and over 100, come after Invista already announced last October the closure of its Maitland chemical plant in Maitland outside Brockville which is costing a hundred jobs, too.
Invista in Kingston had about seven hundred employees, a very large majority represented by the Kingston Independent Nylon Workers Union, or KINWU. The current Invsita-KINWU contract expires January 2028.
Two weeks before the jobs cuts, on May 14, Mayor Bryan Paterson celebrated with Invista business officials the 18th year of the corporation’s naming rights deal for the City’s Invista Centre recreation and sports complex. Taxpayers put up $33.6 million to build the facility, but Invista’s 2008 naming rights deal started at $40,000 per year. In 2019, the five-year naming rights renewal, Invista is paying $44,000 per year.
SLC jobs massacre continues
Merger with Fleming College may violate CA
At the end of April, the provincially-sanctioned closure of many programs at St. Lawrence College has resulted in 28 full-time job cuts in Kingston and SLC campuses in Cornwall and Brockville. Another 16 employees have been involuntarily transferred. The job cuts hit the Kingston campus hardest. It appears St. Lawrence College did not provide the 90-day notice of the layoffs.
The new effort to merge St. Lawrence College with Fleming College in Peterborough has been challenged by OPSEU, whose local 417 represents SLC employees, who have filed an Unfair Labour Practice with the Labour Board stating SLC and Fleming are violating the Colleges Collective Bargaining Act.
NEWS BRIEFS
Napanee public land sale stinks
A multi-year controversy over the Township of Greater Napanee’s sale of CN spur lands north of Highway 401 continues. The dispute arose when the Township Council announced the lands were surplus only a month after a public deputation requested the lands be used to connect to the Cataraqui Trail. After months of negotiations and discussions, a staff report in October 2025 proposed the Township lease the lands but retain ownership. Council then quickly moved to sell the lands. When the Deputy Mayor, Brian Calver, was accused by a public deputation in late April 2026 of making deals behind closed doors, the Council brushed aside the criticisms and approved the land sale.
At the Ontario Labour Board
On May 11, Melissa Lyn Pask filed a Health and Safety Reprisal complaint against Coffee Way Donuts, the popular local establishment at Division and Concession. It is illegal for employers to fire or discipline workers for reporting health and safety concerns.
The Ontario Nurses’ Association initiated a “Sale of Business/Related Employer” case on April 24 relating to Providence Care and its AB Smith Homestead House hospice. The 10-bed facility, located at 152 Phillips Street, provides 24-hour hospice care. It was opened in early 2025.
Obituary: Jim Neill (1951-2026)
Limestone District School Board Trustee, Jim Neill, passed away in late April at the age of 74. Prior to his 2022 election to the Limestone school board, Neill served on Kingston City Council from 2010 to 2022. Neill worked for many years as a teacher at the Upper Canada District School Board and was a fixture in labour and progressive causes in Kingston. Jim’s experience and passion made him a genuine leader and truth-teller at City Council, especially when curiosity, wit and principles were in short supply. Thank you, Jim, for your service.
Stay tuned for the next Kingston Labour News
We will be continuing our coverage of the MSC scheme and be providing a mid-year report on the jobs situation in Kingston based on new Statistics Canada data.
You can support Kingston Labour News by sharing on social media and encouraging friends to sign up for a free email subscription.