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Tag Archives: election Ontario 2014

Wind power to be election issue in October?

27 Friday Jun 2014

Posted by ottawawindconcerns in Ottawa, Renewable energy, Wind power

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

election Ontario 2014, Mayor City of Ottawa, Mike Maguire, municipal election, North Gower, Not a Willing host, Ontario, Prowind, wind farm, wind power

Turbine and home in Ontario

Turbine and home in Ontario

We would say, yes.

Mayoral candidate Mike Maguire had his formal launch last evening and after saying that hydro bills were his number one issue (and the number one concern for citizens), Mr Maguire mentioned the proposed wind power project in North Gower. He said, I will stand with the citizens there and fight against this “not environmental, fiscally irresponsible” project.

He went on to say that the “monstrous” turbines would change the community forever, for no benefit.

Residents of North Gower and Richmond already sent a petition (as a form of referendum) to Ottawa City Hall last fall, stating that the community is Not A Willing Host; the petition was accepted by Council and a motion passed unanimously noting the community’s declaration, and demanding that the province return local land use planning powers to the municipalities.

It is looking like wind power is going to be a critical issue in this year’s municipal election, to be held October 27th.

There are currently 84 communities in Ontario that have passed a resolution at Council to declare they are an unwilling host or Not A Willing Host, out of a probable 100 or so that could be vulnerable to wind power generation projects.

Email us at ottawawindconcerns@gmail.com

All candidates meetings/debates in Ottawa

27 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by ottawawindconcerns in Ottawa, Renewable energy, Wind power

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

all candidates debates Ottawa, candidates, election Ontario 2014, Lisa MacLeod, Nepean-Carleton, Ottawa South, Ottawa West-Nepean

With regret, we must announce that scheduling challenges prevent us from organizing an energy-themed all-candidates’ meeting in Nepean-Carleton riding (home to PC energy critic Lisa MacLeod).

Here are some all-candidates’ meetings scheduled for Ottawa:

May 29, 7-9pm, in Ottawa South at Hillcrest high school, 1900 Dauphin Rd
June 4, 7-9pm, Ottawa Vanier at Centre de services Guigues, 159 Murray St
June 5th, 7-9pm, in Ottawa West Nepean at F.J McDonald School, 2860                                          Ahearn Ave

However, Rogers TV is running several Ottawa-area riding debates…available to Rogers subscribers only.

Here are the TV debates scheduled:

May 27 Ottawa South 7 PM

May 28 Ottawa-Orleans 7 PM

May 28 Ottawa Centre 8 PM

May 29 Ottawa West-Nepean 8 PM

May 29 Nepean-Carleton 9 PM

May 29 Carleton-Mississippi Mills 10 PM

May 28 Ottawa-Vanier 9 PM

Information available at rogerstv.com

We do plan however to present statements on wind power from the candidates in Nepean-Carleton, where the only wind power project has been proposed for the Ottawa area.

Public sector investment in ON up, actual business investment down

13 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by ottawawindconcerns in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

economy Ontario, election Ontario 2014, hydro bills Ontario, job cuts Ontario, Philip Cross, Public sector investment, public sector jobs Ontario, rising electricity bills Ontario

Here, from today’s Financial Post, an opinion piece by Philip Cross, former Chief Economic Analyst at Statistics Canada.

Philip Cross: Public sector investment never ‘kick-starts’ more business investment

Philip Cross, Special to Financial Post | May 13, 2014 | Last Updated: May 13 10:12 AM ET

Ontario public sector investment has tripled, while business investment stagnates

Business investment is the most important dynamic in a growing economy. It commits a firm to a plan for its growth and creates jobs. Investments made today determine what our industrial structure will look like years from now, and how productive those industries will be. For Canada, watching business investment pour into our energy sector 10 times faster than the rest of the economy so far this century locks in that our future lies in producing oil and gas and transporting this to new markets inside and outside of Canada.

FE0513_investment_310_MF

So what does investment say about Ontario’s future? A look at the graph to the right tells an alarming story, with public sector investment tripling since 1998 while private sector investment has stagnated. Over the past 16 years, private sector investment in Ontario rose a total of only 17% from $39.8-billion to $46.4-billion, or 1% a year. Meanwhile, investment by the public sector soared 293% from $9.9-billion to $29.0-billion, or 18% a year (the public sector includes public administration, health, education and utilities, since Ontario’s electricity utilities clearly make decisions at the behest of their political masters, not on the basis of market principles). After a spike related to infrastructure spending during the 2009 recession, public sector investment has settled back into its long-term growth path. As a result, public sector investment has risen from one-quarter the size of private sector investment in 1998 to nearly two-thirds this year. Private and public sector investment are actually converging more than the graph shows, since the billions government is spending on urban transit cannot be separated out from the rest of transportation, which is allocated to the private sector.

One insight jumps out from comparing private versus public sector investment in Ontario. Public sector investment never “kick-starts” more business investment, creating the virtuous circle governments always hope for when launching the latest wave of government capital spending. Instead, more public sector spending creates a vicious circle, where a “failure” of business investment to respond to higher public sector spending justifies the perceived need to further boost public sector investment “to fill the gap.” Repeated enough times over more than a decade of parochial provincial budgets, and the result is a tripling of public service spending while business investment stagnates.

What businesses have been the most reluctant to invest in Ontario’s future, despite the much-vaunted benefits of an engorged public sector, including a highly-educated labour force? Pretty much all of them. Since the peak in 2008, business investment has fallen by $3-billion. The drop is widespread across all industries. Overall, 11 major industry groups have cut back, while only five have invested more. Manufacturing posted the largest drop, with 15 of its 22 member industries paring investment outlays. Before 2008, manufacturing consistently was the largest industry investing in Ontario. Now it has slipped to fourth place. But this is far more than a story of weak manufacturing investment, with important declines also occurring in finance, retail and wholesale trade, recreation, and information and culture among others.

It is not just that public sector investment crowds out business investment, although that clearly is a factor. The aggressive expansion of public sector investment is symptomatic of a wide range of public sector policies that discourage business spending in Ontario— uncompetitive electricity rates, higher minimum wages, more regulation, a new pension plan tax, and high budget deficits that promise future tax hikes….

Read the full story here.

Liberal ex-Finance Minister warned of debt crisis

11 Sunday May 2014

Posted by ottawawindconcerns in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Charles Sousa, debt levels, Dwight Duncan, election Ontario 2014, Kathleen Wynne, Ontario budget, Ontario debt crisis, Ontario Finance Minister, Scott Stinson, Tim Hudak

This is a re-publish from The National Post.

Former Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan  went on an anti-debt crusade in his last months at the legislature.

by Scott Stinson, The National Post, May 10, 2014

ANALYSIS

The week before Charles Sousa tabled the Ontario budget that failed to pass, triggering a provincial election, the man who preceded him as Ontario Finance Minister came to Queen’s Park with a warning.

“Ontario is faced with a staggering debt,” Dwight Duncan said, and he called for public services to be contracted out. Government, he said, would have to “fundamentally re-evaluate its role.”

It didn’t escape notice that his warning was akin to a Kardashian tut-tutting someone about overexposure: Ontario’s debt rose from $154-billion to $281-billion during Mr. Duncan’s own time as Finance Minister. But he had warned about debt issues, he said, before he left office.

That much is true. Seemingly emboldened by the fact that it wasn’t his problem to solve anymore, Mr. Duncan went on an anti-debt crusade in his last months at the legislature. Given the province’s debt levels, he said in January, 2013, low interest rates were a “ticking time bomb.” He warned contenders for the Liberal leadership that spending cuts would have to be doubled if the government was still going to reach a balanced budget by 2017-18.

Kathleen Wynne won that race, of course. There is little indication she was listening.

The 2014 budget fattened the deficit, leaving Ontario with an annual hole of $12.5-billion this fiscal year. Total debt is now forecast to reach almost $338-billion by 2016-17.

It is a staggering number. But perhaps just as surprising has been the Liberals’ disinclination to do anything too rash in trying to reduce it.

Consider that the generally accepted blueprint for disastrous economic management was provided by the Bob Rae NDP government of the early 1990s. In 1993, a deficit that was anticipated to be around $10-billion came in closer to $12-billion.

…

 

Read the full story here.

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