Have-not province Ontario's premier Dalton McGuinty has been at a premiers' meeting in Vancouver this week
bragging about his costly green energy plan and justifying equalization payments to help pay for it:
...It started with a stroll through Stanley Park with David Suzuki, who warmly endorsed his government’s green plan...
...McGuinty claims that green plan has vaulted Ontario past British Columbia to the forefront of action against climate change...
...despite having the second-highest average wages in Canada, Ontario is now officially a have-not province. This year — its third on the dole — it will get $ 2.2 billion, more than any other province except Quebec...
... Three years ago... McGuinty argued that the program should be scrapped. “ To speak of ‘ have’ and ‘ havenot’ provinces in 2008 makes no sense....
... He still doesn’t like the term, but he has come to like the way equalization works, threatening to “ flex our elbows and assert ourselves” if anyone tries to mess with Ontario’s entitlement....
Exactly, McGuinty wants federal pogey to pay for
an insane green energy plan that is costing $billions:
...Billions are wasted buying subsidized wind and solar power that ends up being exported [dumped] at fire-sale prices.
More in the
National Post editorial today:
...If the Ontario Liberal party truly had the courage of Dwight Duncan's anti-equalization convictions, it would refuse to accept the transfer payments, adding moral weight to claims that the system is broken and obsolete. ...
Come October let's hope that Ontarians come to their senses. Ontario's "vaulting past BC" in plans to save the world from global warming is nuts - and BC Liberals having put us near the forefront of the same messianic nitwittery are no less nuts.
The flaw with this like the carbon tax et cetera is that it is based on the arrogant and silly premise that we can prevent the climate from changing. Climate change has been taking place since the beginning of time well before the arrival of man, but that is a very inconvenient fact for the useful idiots and those seeking to enrich their own bank accounts at everyone else's expense.
ReplyDeleteTime and effort would be better spent on reducing real pollution, ensuring clean water and clean air and investing in technology to adapt to climate change, however it may be.
True. And meanwhile maybe we can at least scrap the equalization program so that all of us aren't forced to subsidize Ontario's green energy folly.
ReplyDeleteThe equalisation program should be scrapped regardless, since it penalises sound financial management while rewarding bad financial management of provinces, which is why we see the ones on the receiving end living above their means.
ReplyDeleteThere is also no justification for subsidies for energy of any kind, and contrary to the myth the oil sands do not receive subsidies. They do benefit from certain tax breaks, which is not the same. Let consumers decide if there is a market for "green" energy, which, by the way, is actually far from green.
I agree about scrapping the equalization program. It has long outlived its usefulness, assuming it was ever useful. Now it's harmful to the economy and, with all the regional squabbling, to unity.
ReplyDeleteThere's a good article by Jack Mintz in the FP today about McGuinty's claims of unfair oil industry subsidies.