More onerous legislation by Ontario’s Libs

In an effort to pull the wool over the eyes of all the rubes Ontario’s Liberals have to woo in order to stay in power, they are enacting legislation that will create higher costs in the guise of pursuing “green” policies. Who else but George Smitherman could table the province’s new Green Energy Act and keep a straight face while doing so? The bill has numerous provisions that will increase the costs to Ontarians dramatically, even while Smitherman is assuring them nothing could be further from the truth.

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For instance, Smitherman promised a fixed price for electricity obtained from renewable sources (i.e. wind power) that would increase the average homeowner’s heating bill by a mere 1%, a claim that is patently in the realm of la-la-land, given that the cost of a kilowatt hour of wind-generated electricity is now running at 40¢ vs. 6¢ for a kilowatt hour of electricity generated from fossil fuels. In addition to the $5 billion that Smitherman says this ambitious project will cost, it also effectively deprives municipalities of any say over where these giant, ugly, harmful wind turbines will be located. A number of groups across the province have expressed outrage that this new bill will effectively shut them out of the decision-making process forever. Then there is the provision of a mandatory energy audit every homeowner will be required to perform on his or her home in order to sell it. The audit will cost somewhere in the neighbourhood of $300 and will create a lot more problems than it will solve. Smitherman rationalizes these audits by citing the fact that automobile buyers are given the statistics on fuel consumption and appliance buyers are given the statistics on their energy use, so the same should apply to homebuyers. But then, the energy consumption statistics are only available on new appliances and vehicles and energy-use statistics can easily be obtained when buying a home just by asking for copies of the home’s heating bills over the past twelve months. But doing that wouldn’t entail the creation of a whole new bureaucracy charged with handling energy audits. Taking into account the government’s track record when it comes to projecting costs, it’s a sure bet that the energy audits will eventually cost twice as much as currently projected and the only thing they will achieve is that they will further depress the price of real estate as prospective buyers will want sizable reductions in the purchase price of a home that has a less than stellar energy audit. Given that the current economic crisis is deemed to be critical in most jurisdictions, one would think that Ontario’s Liberals would be looking for ways to make sure the citizenry have more cash in its pockets, rather than finding ways to relieve them of ever increasing amounts. But then no one has ever accused McGuinty and Smitherman of caring about what Ontarians need. Like most other legislation enacted by this so-called government (think outlawing sushi, certain dog breeds, mandatory bicycle helmets, etc) this has the same light touch as a German oompah band. Smitherman and company are rationalizing that this legislation will put Ontario at the forefront of other “green” jurisdictions, citing EU countries as shining examples worth emulating. I’m not sure that it’s wise to emulate countries like Germany or Denmark, given that energy prices there are typically four to five times higher than they are here. This bill will take food out of the mouths of Ontario’s children just so the Liberals can pat themselves on the back for being green. What’s really needed is a bill that will stimulate economic growth, not one that will throw cold water on it. But coming from Ontario’s Liberals, that’s just too much to hope for.