05.11.2011 06:41 AM

Tim Hudak: job killer

Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak’s pledge to reverse the McGuinty government’s key green energy policy if his party wins the October election could mean the death of a burgeoning new industrial sector in Windsor, renewable energy companies said Tuesday.

“It would mean, basically, that we would close our factory and leave,” said Paco Caudet, general manager of Siliken Group, a Spanish manufacturer of solar panels.

If Ontario’s Green Energy Act were scrapped, “we would have no more basis to operate here,” added Klaus Dohring, president of Green Sun Rising. “It would have a devastating effect (on the sector),” he said.

“It would be a disaster for Windsor,” said Caudet, whose Windsor operation hosts its grand opening Friday. Manufacturing solar panels since last month with just over 50 employees after a $7-million investment, he said the current plan would see 165 workers employed by the end of this year.

More here and here and here.

 

34 Comments

  1. MCBellecourt says:

    Same old story, Mr. K. Right wingers seem hell-bent to destroy anything good and decent in this world–and people still vote for them because of some screwy belief system that says human beings are borne in sin and need to spent their whole pathetic lives enduring punishment, forever self-flagellating in their quest for god knows what. The worst of it is, they are hell-bent on taking the whole planet down with them.

    Sick. Just **firetruckin’** sick. Don’t these people give two shits about what they’re leaving for their descendents?

    What is wrong with these people?

    • Dennis says:

      McGuinty’s energy policies are a disaster. Unless he stands up to the powerful Hydro unions and their $100,000 salaries funded by ridiculous feed in tariffs, we are doomed.

      • TDotRome says:

        Let me get this right, Dennis. You’d rather have the lowest bidder running the power system, which includes nuclear reactors? Yeah, sure let’s put a bunch of know-nothings who make $35,000 in there. Because anybody can be taught to push buttons, right?

        Underpaying people is the scourge of the Earth. Begrudging people their due will baffle me forever. As well as presuming that we know how much other people should get paid.

    • Patrick Hamilton says:

      With the Charles McVety’s of the world leading the Con Brain Trust, is it any wonder?

      McVety has been strongly critical of the environmental movement, claiming that it leads to worship of the earth and the abandonment of God. Recently he declared his opposition to a carbon cap-and-trade system to avert anthropogenic climate change in his cover story for the August/September 2009 issue of Evangelical Christian Magazine: “I believe this taxing and trading of “air” will fund the one world government of the Anti-Christ.”[11] Earlier, in the magazine’s Feb/Mar 2009 issue, he praised conservative Evangelical pastor James Dobson for leading the move to force Rev. Richard Cizik from his position as Vice President for Governmental Affairs of the the National Association of Evangelicals, because of his advocacy of creation care theology*, and linked the resignation of Ted Haggard from the Presidency of the organization to his support for the same position.[12]

      *Evangelicals who believe climate change is real, and that they have a moral obligation to mitigate it.

  2. Cath says:

    On the green energy file alone it’s not looking great for McGuinty in my region and it’s got little to do with Hudak. Rural/small town Ontario is pissed. What’s more amazing is that in talking to some diehard NDP friends yesterday they’re expecting to leapfrog Hudak and form gov’t what with their federal fortunes.
    Possibility or pipe dream?
    The argument made by the NDP of course is that the criticism of their party under Rae is moot now because supposedly the province is worse under McGuinty so it lets Rae off the hook. Also Rae’s not a Liberal and therefore a Liberal not NDP problem.
    After the results of the federal election – anything’s possible I suppose but I’m sure not feeling the love for a provincial campaign so soon after a federal one.

  3. wassup says:

    You were hanging out at your haunt the Carleton U Pub hoping to catch the eye of that hot new MP/Barmaid Warren…. How else to explain your willful disregard for the economics of how societies create wealth.

    The Samdung deal will create thousands of jobs…. in Korea.

    Government spending to “create” a new industry never works. It never has and it never will. Only the Free Market can create “jobs”, which itself is just a euphemism for wealth creation. The true driver of progress, freedom, and lifting of citizens out of poverty.

    Overheard a conversation on CNBC the other day. The commentators were stating that if it weren’t for the massive public spending by “Ontario Province”, the entire “Green Industry” would collapse… Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the so called “green job” future you are (trying) to convince us to waste taxpayer money on.

    • Ted says:

      Seems to me that you don’t know your history all that well. I can’t think of very many successful industries that did not start out with government protection from rail to air to computers and the internet to pharma to oil&gas, forestry, agriculture and farming. Not one of them was created or survived without significant government assistance. There would be no auto industry in Ontario but for government subsidies and protection. There would be few farmers in Canada but for initial government grants and ongoing government subsidies.

      Indeed some of them, like computing and the internet, exist not because of government assistance but only because of government creation. And look where that is now.

      • wassup says:

        Are you kidding? Air Travel was destroyed by Government Meddling. You are obviously not olde enough to remember the 1970s.

        How could anyone who flew on Air Soviet Canada possibly think that we should go back to the days when Public Servants in Ottawa set the price for a plane ticket from Toronto to Vancouver????

        Face it, Government consumes wealth to pay Fat Cat Public Servants, hopefully leaving a few crumbs for the poor among us, it does not create wealth or, by extension, jobs.

        • Ted says:

          You are missing my point. I’m not defending or advocating for ongoing involvement by the government and certainly not advocating or defending the running of operations by the government. Maybe/probably once air travel was off the ground (literally as well as figuratively), they should have gotten out altogether.

          The government should not be running businsesses. But that is not what we are talking about here.

          There is a reality to economic life in Canada and everywhere.

          There is no “Air Soviet Canada” at all if not for substantial initial assistance by the government. Just like there is no national railroad from coast to coast without the government. Just like there is no electricity grid without the government. Just like there is no internet or cross country phone system without the government.

          • wassup says:

            There is no Sun, no Water, No Air to Breathe without the Government… You are a delusional. There is no point trying to convince you as you live in circular argument that defies history and economics while always returning to the truth you choose to believe.

            As for the youthful readers, let us pray that they see a world not yet consumed by your pathetic vision of Bureaucrats “innovating” us into the Poor House.

  4. Ted says:

    One of the failings of our democratic system is that to win, you often have to take an extremely short term view of policies, while to fix and govern well you need to look long term. The election will be interesting to see which will win out: serious longterm thinking and planning or superficial populist quick hits with no plan.

    Approximately 16,000 jobs in Ontario, 6000 in solar alone, a budding new manufacturing sector to help replace the dying manufacturing sector of Ontario, where costs of manufacturing (and therefore ultimately to the taxpayer) are declining because of the FIT Program and economies of scale.

    No big transaction is perfect and the Samsung deal was not perfect. But it kickstarted a new manufacturing and engineering base in one fell swoop at a cost of $1.60 per year for each Ontarian. That and a quarter will get you an extra Timmies coffee each year.

    I expect we will all consider that an especially good bargain when we find out how much Samsung will sue taxpayers for if Hudak cancels their contract. It has the stench of David Miller’s dumb promise to block the island airport which quietly (even secretly) cost taxpayers over a hundred million (and didn’t do anything to stop the airport).

    It’s not just about the cost of power today. Renewable energy costs are dropping quickly because of FIT, but they are still astronomically higher. Which is why the plan to get only a small percentage over the medium term from renewables is smart too.

    These renewable energy jobs are going to be somewhere. Someone somewhere is going to create the space to attract this nascent industry and create the “silicon valley” of energy technologies. I’d prefer that was here, thank you very much, along with the self-sustaining job creators that will come with it over the long haul.

  5. Burt says:

    We could “create jobs” in any sector you want to if te province could subsidize them at the rate McGuinty wants to dole out handouts to Samsung etc. The whole thing is absurd. And thankfully about to come to an end.

    • Philip says:

      Just so I’m clear, government dole for oil and gas companies = good and government dole for green energy = bad. Right. The glory of “free market” economics revealed.

  6. Dennis says:

    Stop the McGuinty “green” energy madness! I can’t wait for the October “ejection”.

  7. Al in Cranbrook says:

    Happening in Europe, too. Governments going broke can’t afford massive subsidies, and the “green” economy isn’t worth a plugged nickel without ’em.

    Meanwhile, here in BC school boards and hospitals are being forced to spend some of their already under pressure funds on buying carbon offset credits, because the bozos in Victoria decided that these public services must be “carbon neutral”. You just cannot make up s**t like this!!!

    And why? Because 5% of all CO2 entering the atmosphere is generated by human activity, and of that pitiful amount 2% is produced in Canada. And a bunch of avian killing, eyesore from hell, fanblades on steroids that can only produce anything at all on a windy day is somehow going to make the world a better place to live…except for the part about driving energy costs through the roof and kicking the hell out of the cost of living, particularly for the poorest in society. Not to mention flushing kabillions worth of taxpayers’ money down yet another drain on crap nobody else would even think about spending their own money on!

    Brilliant!

  8. McGuintyisgoingDOWN says:

    Corrupt and wasteful McGuinty is going down and dirty spin and smear will NOT change that!

  9. que sera sera says:

    POLLUTE until we PUKE, eh Gord. Dinosaurs.

    • Mandos says:

      You’ll keep talking like that as food continues to be harder to grow, Tuvalu sinks under the waves, etc, etc. AGW denialism is based not in science but in the ideological rejection of the merits of social foresight and prudence.

      • Patrick Hamilton says:

        I agree….Mr Tulk should tell that to the thousands of Indian farmers who have committed suicide(usually by drinking pesticide, ironically the very thing that got them into so much debt, along with the Monsanto GM seed, that they see no other way out)

        We are almost at peak oil, and with increased consumption by China and India(all of whose citizens want a lifestyle comparable to N. America) the cost of petroleum will continue to rise, making it much harder for third world farmers to afford petrochemical based fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, which are all necessary to get the kind of yields Mr. Tulk speaks of.

        The very production methods Mr. Tulk speaks of, are in the end, unsustainable…..and unless we want to see major famines, there is going to have to be a major paradigm shift on how we
        treat our soils. The continuous use of phosphates on soil effectively sterilizes them, killing all the microbes that help make the soil fertile in the first place.

        But those in the Conservative Party, like Mr Tulk, will continue to bury their heads in the (tar)sand…..

      • Mandos says:

        We shall see if the human race goes down the path of food insecurity—because I’m not seeing all this in the price of bread. Weather instability (the actual local result of AGW) is going to make new production unreliable.

        The universe is not one that is kind to Randroid fantasy, at least for the bulk of human race. Survival requires regulation, always did. Anything else is belief in a perpetual motion machine. The project of the right is to defer the reckoning until it is too late.

  10. Mandy says:

    Good riddance, Green Energy Act!

    It is actually a job killer. In Spain, they found for every heavily subsidized “green” job, three were lost because electricity costs went through the roof. Wind is a terribly inefficient, erratic form of power that still cannot be depended on for anything.

    The whole scheme was more about getting gullible green votes then actually created electricity or jobs.

    • Philip says:

      Really? Should Ontario taxpayers stop subsidizing the oil & gas industry too? Can my tax dollars stop subsidizing both big agri-businesses and small farms? Yet another case of “free market” hypocrisy

      • Philip says:

        So what are Canadian taxpayer’s dollars actually subsidizing, if the oil & gas industry is so economically viable? R&D, transportation costs or site development fees? I have no idea and quite frankly at $1.41.6 a liter for gas at the pump, I truly don’t care. It’s price gouging of the worst sort and to add insult to injury my tax dollars support them as well.

    • Hudak is not promising to repeal the Green Energy Act. Far from it. The wind turbines (read Samsung deal) relate only to section 5 of that Act. Hudak remains hopelessless committed to fighting natural climate change with energy policy. If you doubt me, read these excerpts from Hansard: http://blog.paulmckeever.ca/2011/01/06/reality-check-ontarios-liberals-and-progressive-conservatives-on-global-warming-and-climate-change/

      The reality is worse: Hudak is promising nothing in particular, and attempting to make it look like he is proposing a revolution. His allies in the media – especially in the National Post – are attempting to misrepresent the situation – to those who oppose fighting climate change – by falsely suggesting Hudak would repeal the Green Energy Act or commence some sort of opposition to fighting climate change. In short: he’s being dishonest.

  11. Steven says:

    Hudak’s strategy seems to be to sound like the tribune of the disaffected yet wilfully ignorant voters.

    It worked for Layton.

    Any reason why it won’t work for Hudak (or Horvath for that matter)?

  12. Ariella says:

    Interesting. Reminds me of something I read yesterday that puts the issue in a global context.

    http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_new_sputnik_20110510/#

    The question we should be asking ourselves is whether our economy can afford *not* to be at the forefront of new energy technology.

  13. Patrick Hamilton says:

    Heres an article all you Hudak Con luddites, nay, all Con Luddites should read……http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2010.05-environment-the-new-grand-tour/

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