Some days, you feel like you’re living in la-la land. Take yesterday, here in Ontario, for example.
For a while now, Ontario has had a Green Energy Act. A popular one, with around 22,000 people signing up in the first year. Thousands of jobs have been created or are soon on the way.
And across rural Ontario, farms are diversifying their income by making renewable energy.
Then along comes Tim Hudak, the Tory leader, quoting all these so-called facts. Facts that come from sources even the Wall Street Journal — owned by the same guy who owns Fox News — question. About how renewable energy is so bad for our economy. A study supported by climate change deniers and supporters of California’s controversialProposition 23. The US government has also debunked the study, citing flawed methodology, contextual oversights, and a lack of transparency and supporting statistics.
I’m all for an intelligent debate about energy policy. And if people disagree with Ontario’s HST, that’s their right. Anyway, back to la-la land, where people like to have their cake and eat it, too.
Because you can’t scrap a job-creating, farm-income-generating law without being honest about everything that will happen next.
So what’s Tim Hudak’s plan for all the farms receiving farm income?
For the Niagara Falls church putting in solar?
For the new manufacturing plants in Windsor, Guelph, and more?
If Mr. Hudak wants to shut these down, then say so.
But renewable energy simply is not behind the electricity price hikes Ontario has seen. And the jobs, farm income and cleaner air that more Ontarians are enjoying deserve a better debate than what we’ve seen on the HST. A tax Mr. Hudak opposes but will keep.
See what I mean about la-la land?
Dr. Rick Smith
Executive Director
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