A blog to give a voice to our concern about the continued erosion of our democratic processes not only within the House of Commons and within our electoral system but also throughout our society. Here you will find articles about the current problems within our parliamentary democracy, about actions both good and bad by our elected representatives, about possible solutions, opinions and debate about the state of democracy in Canada, and about our roles/responsibilities as democratic citizens. We invite your thoughtful and polite comments upon our posts and ask those who wish to post longer articles or share ideas on this subject to submit them for inclusion as a guest post.
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Sunday, September 1, 2019

Take a deep breath ....whilst you still can.

On the day Premier Doug Ford pulled Ontario out of an international clean energy trading market, it spelled the end for 227 emissions-reducing projects across the province, reveals a leaked document....It is but a small example of the short term thinking and anti green mindset of the Frord regime.

According to the leaked document, in Ontario, the money was set to fund 120 commuter cycling programs (each worth $25,000) in 120 jurisdictions across the province. It was set to help develop 41 green social housing programs, and 20 improvement or retrofit projects for social housing apartments. It was also going to go toward 11 electric vehicle charging stations and one electric-bus pilot in the city of Brampton (Canada's ninth largest city).....

According to the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario (ECO), whose office the Ford government shuttered earlier this year, cap and trade raised almost $2.9 billion in government revenues from six auctions since January 2017 — $2.4 billion up to March 31, 2018, and $472 million in the final May 2018 joint auction with California and Quebec. The money was tracked in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Account (GGRA) and used to “fund, directly or indirectly, costs relating to initiatives … that are reasonably likely to reduce, or support the reduction of greenhouse gas.”.........

In California, cap and trade funds have been collected from polluters and spent to slash greenhouse gas emissions. Last year, the state spent US$1.4 billion on such efforts, investing in everything from electric cars, solar panels and clean energy transit lines. These programs have helped clean the air of pollution that makes people sick — reducing particulate emissions by 474 tons in 2018. The fund is also being used to reduce the amount of water that Californians use and to plant millions of trees...........

In Ontario, the cancellation of cap and trade is shown as lost revenue in the Ford government's first budget. It is mentioned only four times in the 382-page financial document, with few details about where the cap and trade funds the government had in its coffers had been spent. (In previous interviews, Ministry of Environment spokespeople have said the remaining money in the cap and trade coffer will allocated for "wind-down costs.").....

The preceding is just a few highlights from an article published a few weeks ago which can be seen in full at https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/07/09/news/exclusive-doug-ford-didnt-tell-you-ontario-cancelled-227-clean-energy-projects

Add to this Jason Kenney’s (tax payer funded) inquiry into that “foreign-funded defamation campaign” against Alberta’s fossil fuel industry and you can clearly see that the right wing oil (tar) lovers are in full cry! (see https://albertapolitics.ca/2019/07/albertas-foreign-funded-fossil-fuel-defamation-inquisition-stand-by-for-an-expensive-gong-show/)

 
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4 comments:

Lorne said...

The contrast between Ford's regressive policies and California's bold fight against greenhouse gas emissions is telling, Rural. We were far better off with cap and trade than we are with the federally-rebated carbon tax. And, as statistics have shown, the former was a job-creator as people used subsidies to retrofit their homes, etc. But try telling that to Ford Nation, eh?

Rural said...

I put Frord n Trumph in the same category Lorne, brain dead is being nice..... I fear what is in store for us here come election day!

Owen Gray said...

California's economy -- with all its green initiatives -- is doing quite well, Rural. It undercuts Ford's lie that supporting green energy is bad economic policy.

Rural said...

The state of the economy is of little value if we are all choking on un-breathable air, good health outweighs monetary wealth every time IMHO Owen.