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Hamilton City Council has approved the merger between Horizon Utilities and four other local electricity providers and it is being sold as a victory for both council and taxpayers.

Taxpayers will notice very little. An office will remain in downtown Hamilton and service will not change.

Council debated for 12 hours Friday, but ultimately, the vote wasn’t even close. 10-4 in favour of the merger.

Marvin Ryder says that these mergers are necessary for long term stability.

The new company will combine Horizon with utilities from Mississauga, Vaughn, Barrie, and Markham.

The city does lose direct control over it’s utilities as the new company will have a board in which Hamilton will be a part but with that comes safeguards as there is an equal number of votes and no one city can dominate.

The new utility will become the largest in the province with 960 thousand customers.