Ontario

Saturday December 1, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday December 1, 2018

Doug Ford’s environmental plan falls woefully short

Some people argue quibbling over semantics — the meaning of a word, phrase, sentence, or text — is trivial. Not always.

September 29, 2018

Consider the Ontario government’s just-announced plan to fight climate change. Environment Minister Rod Phillips says the plan doesn’t include a carbon tax.

Ontario’s environment watchdog — a position the government has announced is being cut — says the province’s plan will impose a carbon tax on industry despite government assurances it would not do so. She argues, credibly, that introducing mandatory standards on Ontario’s largest polluters does, in fact, put a price on carbon. Just not for everyone.

Environmental Commissioner Dianne Saxe is right, but don’t expect the government to admit that. Doug Ford will never admit to putting a price on carbon for industrial polluters, any more than he will admit his plan falls short of what is really needed. But both things are true.

October 12, 2016

No one is going to argue against tougher regulations for big polluters. But it’s worth remembering that all of the province’s worst polluters don’t produce as many harmful emissions as comes from buildings and transportation. And those sectors are not even noted in the plan.

Another key feature of the Ford plan offers incentives to the private sector to help Ontario meet its goals. How will those incentives be funded? By the public treasury, of course. So no matter how you slice it, taxpayers are funding industry that wants to become more energy efficient. Perhaps there’s nothing wrong with that. But even the most staunch conservative cannot deny that this amounts to taxpayers investing in greenhouse gas reduction. As they would, say, with a carbon tax.

The Ford government says this plan means the province will meet GHG reduction targets agreed upon by world leaders in the Paris Accord. Under that international agreement, Canada has committed to reducing emissions by 30 per cent of 2005 levels by 2030. Thanks to the efforts of the previous government in eliminating coal-fired generation, Ontario has already reduced emissions by 22 per cent. So if this plan could achieve an additional eight per cent reduction, Ford and friends could fairly claim Ontario has done its part, although in large part due to the previous Liberal government.

May 16, 2015

Here’s the rub for Ontario taxpayers. Federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna is not impressed. She called the Ford plan “backwards” and suggested Ottawa will push ahead with plans to enforce a carbon tax.

Ford still insists he and other conservative premiers will fight the federal tax, even though constitutional legal experts say there is no chance they can win in court. Meanwhile, Ottawa has plans to send rebates to individual Ontario taxpayers drawn from carbon tax revenue, a move polling suggests will lesson or even defeat public resistance to the new tax.

So Ford spends $300 million on a no-win court battle. Ontarians get a carbon tax in addition to industry incentives, which taxpayers are also paying for. And don’t forget that Ford’s killing of the cap-and-trade program has cost, so far, $3.5 billion in public investment for infrastructure like schools.

Ford says he will ensure Trudeau is defeated in the next election. But the leader doing the most damage to the province and its taxpayers right now isn’t Trudeau. It’s Ford himself. (Source: Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Thursday November 29, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday November 29, 2018

A global shift toward electric vehicles is well underway, experts say

When General Motors cited plans to pivot toward electric and autonomous vehicle production as a key reason it had decided to mothball its Oshawa assembly plant, the company was talking about a future that many Canadians didn’t recognize.

August 4, 2017

But experts say the auto industry’s seismic shift away from the traditional internal combustion engine is already well underway.

“Pretty much every manufacturer’s making some decision and financial commitment to what the vehicle of the future is going to look like,” said David Adams, president and CEO of Global Automakers of Canada, an umbrella industry association that represents BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Porsche, and Volkswagen.

“Our members, all of them look at … decarbonized transportation as what the future is going to be.”

In a news release Monday, GM said it would cease current operations in Oshawa, as well as four plants in the U.S., by the end of 2019. The company said the decision would save it $6 billion, and enable it to double investment in its electric and autonomous vehicle programs in the next two years.

July 17, 2009

According to Adams full automation of vehicles is likely still “decades away.”

But electric vehicles — either battery electric or plug-in hybrids — make up a small but rapidly growing share of the market. As of December, 1.4 per cent of all vehicles sold in Canada were electric, according to FleetCarma, a technology consultant firm, and there were just under 50,000 of the vehicles on Canada’s roads.

However, the number of electric vehicles sold last year increased 68 per cent compared to the year before. The 18,560 plug-in vehicles that drivers bought in 2017 represented a fivefold increase compared to sales in 2013.

The GM-made Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in hybrid, was the hottest seller in Canada last year, followed by the Chevrolet Bolt, a battery electric vehicle. GM announced this week it would discontinue the Volt as the company prioritizes battery electric vehicles. (Source: Toronto Star) 

 

Wednesday November 28, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday November 28, 2018

Doug Ford is becoming a liability for Andrew Scheer

Ever since he took office, Premier Doug Ford has gone out of his way to cast himself in the role of federal kingmaker.

August 24, 2018

From day one he has made no secret of the fact that he is making it a priority to see Justin Trudeau voted out of government next fall.

But as Ford is currently learning at his own expense, the undeniable national influence that attends the role of Ontario premier cuts both ways.

His ambition to play kingmaker in next fall’s federal vote is really the first casualty of his mishandling of the Franco-Ontarian file.

Notwithstanding the premier’s damage-control efforts, the dust is unlikely to settle on the backlash he has engineered when he reneged on his promise to Ontario’s francophone community to pursue the project of a French-language university.

November 20, 2018

The decision to eliminate the post of commissioner of French-language services — a move devoid of a fiscal rationale as the money saved, if any, amounts to a drop in an ocean of spending — only added insult to injury.

Late Friday, Ford’s office announced it was restoring a full-fledged portfolio for francophone affairs within the cabinet and adding a senior adviser on Franco-Ontarian affairs to the premier’s staff.

But it will take more than the closing of the barn door after the horse has bolted to turn Ford’s status back from liability to his federal cousins to major asset in next fall’s campaign. (Continued: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Tuesday November 20, 2018


Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday November 20, 2018

Why Doug Ford’s Franco-Ontarian cost-cutting could spell trouble for Andrew Scheer

What’s been called a “sad day for Franco-Ontarians” presents a challenge for Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer — not only in Ontario but in every part of the country where francophones live.

November 27, 2006

The Conservatives are hoping to replicate Premier Doug Ford’s electoral success in Ontario and see him as a key ally in the fight against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax. But they also have great hopes of wooing Quebec voters — hopes that could be dashed if Scheer is unable to reconcile his support for Ford with his pitch to the francophone voters now angered by Ford’s actions.

In its fiscal update on Thursday, Ford’s government announced it would be cancelling a project to build a long-awaited French-language university in Toronto and would be abolishing the position of the French language services commissioner.

These decisions hit Franco-Ontarians hard and the reaction has been swift and furious. The front page of Le Droit, a major Franco-Ontarian newspaper, called it a “black day for francos.” Francophone organizations and associations across the province have denounced the move and say they are prepared to contest it in the courts.

But French-speakers in Ontario weren’t the only ones who took notice. In New Brunswick and Manitoba, concerns are being raised about what it signals for the francophone minorities in those provinces.

This is an especially sensitive issue in New Brunswick, where a new Progressive Conservative government is taking office that is dependent for survival on the People’s Alliance, a party that wants to roll back some parts of the province’s Official Languages Act.

Quebec’s French-language media — which normally would pay little attention to a provincial fiscal update in Ontario — also jumped on the news. Le Devoir reported the decision under the headline, “Doug Ford sacrifices Ontario francophones.” Le Journal de Montréal, a widely-read and generally conservative-leaning paper, called it a “sad day.”

Quebec Premier François Legault, a small-c conservative himself, also expressed his concerns and said he would take up the issue with his Ontario counterpart. The mayor of Quebec City — the municipality at the centre of the region where most of the Conservatives’ seats in the province are located — denounced the move as mean-spirited and provocative. (Source: CBC News) 

 

Saturday November 17, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday November 17, 2018

Ford government’s 1st fiscal update shows Ontario cut deficit to $14.5B

Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government says it has cut the province’s deficit by $500 million, bringing the figure down to $14.5 billion in its first few months in office.

June 25, 2018

The change is announced in the government’s Fall Economic Statement for 2018-2019, its first major fiscal update since winning the spring election.

“The fiscal hole is deep,” Finance Minister Vic Fedeli said in presenting the document to the legislature on Thursday afternoon. “The road ahead is not an easy one and will require difficult decisions. Everyone across the province will be required to make sacrifices, without exception.”

The government said it has made progress on cutting the deficit by finding $3.2 billion in efficiencies in operations, including a hiring freeze across the public service.

The belt-tightening measures laid out also include rolling the positions of three independent officers — the environmental commissioner, the child and youth advocate and the French language services commissioner — into the offices of the auditor general or the provincial ombudsman.

Government staff could not say what will happen to those working in the eliminated offices, but Premier Doug Ford has consistently promised that no jobs would be lost as a result of his cost-cutting.

Plans for a French-language university have also been cancelled, though the government could not immediately say how much money the move would save.

Though it is spending less, the government said it is also taking in $2.7 billion less in revenue in the fiscal year — including $1.5 billion attributed to the cancellation of cap and trade.

More than $300,000 in lost revenue is attributed to cancelling planned tax increases, including one that would have raised taxes for small businesses, the document says.

The Tories had said the previous Liberal government left a $15 billion deficit, a figure disputed by critics, who said it includes spending promised by the Liberals but cancelled by the current regime.

While the document mentions returning the province’s budget to balance, it does not spell out how long it will take to achieve that goal. (Source: CTV News)