Consumers, businesses and green energy experts all over Ontario are panning the province's new green regime initiative as a waste of time and money at a time when the province should be focusing on strengthening the economy.
The initiative, announced Monday, aims to spend as much as $5-billion to encourage the growth of renewable forms of energy as well as create as many as 50,000 jobs over the next three years. The province has not released specific details about how it will generate employment.
Wayne Samuelson, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour is not impressed.
"I wouldn't count on one of those jobs to pay my mortgage next year," he said Tuesday. "Politicians use these big numbers when they want to talk about how they are creating jobs, but when we are losing jobs you never hear them talk about it."
Mr. Samuelson said Ontario lost 71,000 jobs in January, most of which were in manufacturing. The government's promise of 50,000 new jobs over three years would work out to fewer than 1,400 new jobs per month.
Further opposition to the province's plan is coming from taxpayers who will see their hydro bills increase overnight in order to pay for the plan.
"It's a new green tax," said Kevin Gaudet, Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. "There may be a bunch of disagreement about what the best way is to respond to challenging economic times. But the one area for which there is no disagreement is the issue of raising costs and fees and taxes. This is exactly the wrong time."Source.
