OUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK; BLOG # 185; FRIDAY, MAY 29, 2015.

THE MESSAGE:

I scratch my head. There is no sleep tonight. I am haunted by the way government works. You decide! I say GET BACK IN THE GAME!  Here’s some advice for PREMIER WYNNE: cut power costs, quit treating electricity generation like a school project on green energy, and Don’t count on the weak dollar to once again subsidize inefficiency. Ignore the  union view that treats wages and benefits like a birthright. Focus on productivity and competitiveness, not subsidies and labour dogma. Create and maintain jobs!

DANGER! 

A) ONTARIO'S TOLL HWY. 407

IS IT TOO LATE?

The highway was built by Bob Rae's NDP Government and experienced a significant cost deficit. In order to help offset this deficit, a toll system was initiated.

The present highway is a privately operated tollway. It is owned by a consortium of Canadian and Spanish corporations. The extension of the tollway (Highway 407 East) will be owned by the province of Ontario.

Everything is electronic and automated, drivers pay for the camera operations and the billing costs in addition to the exorbitant toll rates... And the Ontario Gov. acts as 'enforcer' in collecting the unpaid tolls!

In the early 1990’s Ontario was almost bankrupt under Bob Rae’s NDP government. But it desperately needed new roads, as it still does today. So the Rae government built a toll road around Toronto and it was a great success. It was a cash cow called the 407 ETR.

In May of 1999, the Conservative government of Mike Harris leased this road for 99 years to '407 International Inc', for $3.1Billion. It is jointly owned by Cintra Infraestructuras from Spain (43.23%), subsidiaries of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (40%) and a Montreal-based engineering firm SNC-Lavalin (16.77%). The deal included a 99-year lease agreement with unlimited control over the highway and its tolls, dependent on traffic volume; however, the Ontario government maintains the right to build a transit system within the highway right-of-way.

The 407 ETR continues to refuse to produce any photographic or other evidence, that the billing is an accurate reflection of the offending vehicle's presence on the roadway. The consortium decides on the interest rate for these bills.  Currently the rate is 26.82 per cent compounded monthly and varies based on the dictates of the private owners.

Historically, there is a definite problem with the billing system. After the sale of the highway, according to the media of that time, 100,000 citizens who had never been on the road were incorrectly billed. MPP’s were deluged with complaints and so the Conservatives Government, in 2000, cancelled the collection deal. In 2005 the highway owners brought the matter to court. The judge ruled in their favour even though this company still showed no accountability and still did not produce evidence of the legitimacy of its charges.

The toll in 1999 was seven cents a kilometre, and now it is 19.85 cents a kilometre! There is also a monthly accounting fee of $2.50 and a video charge of $3.25. That is far beyond the rate of inflation and there is no control on how much this foreign company can charge.

You can drive the 400 mile length of the New York Thruway (I-90), from Buffalo to New York City , a toll road with fully staffed toll booths, for  2.1 cents per km. No accounting fee and no video fees. 

B) THE GREEN ENERGY ACT

Ontario’s Green Energy Act offered so-called “feed-in rates” almost four times existing electricity rates for wind and more than 10 times for solar power. Wind and solar companies rushed in. By the time the government realized that these subsidies were driving Ontario from one of the lowest to one of the highest power cost jurisdictions in North America, the province had signed several 20-year-locked-in-rate-guaranteed contracts that will drive power rates up a further 40 per cent to 50 per cent in coming years. Much of this 'green power' comes on line when it isn’t needed. This surplus electricity is dumped into the United States at bargain-basement prices that Ontario’s Auditor-General found has already cost Ontario power consumers billions of dollars, with much bigger losses yet to come before those 20-year contracts expire.

C) CAP AND TRADE FOR ONTARIO?

Premier Kathleen Wynne announced that Ontario would link up with the existing Quebec and California carbon dioxide cap-and-trade systems.  Please Mommy please, say it isn't so!

THE EUROPEAN EXPERIENCE

The first and largest carbon cap-and-trade scheme is Europe’s 10-year-old system. It began with overly generous subsidies for wind and solar power. The immediate effect was to increase electricity prices precipitously. Cap-and-trade handed wind and solar power companies a second windfall by creating a carbon trading market that allowed these companies to sell surplus carbon offsets from their initiatives that for the most part were very low emission projects.

This was in contrasted to the many European factories and industrial plants who were already faced with high power costs. Many found it more advantageous to shut down operations and sell their carbon credit allocation on the carbon trading market. Consequently, the bulk of Europe’s emissions reductions have come as a result of the loss of energy-intensive industries to non European countries. Many of the products consumed by Europeans are now produced in countries without emissions limits, demonstrating the futility of imposing local carbon cap measures without commitments from competing countries.

Sadly and with much irony, since European industry was already among the world’s most energy efficient, the emissions embedded in most of those imported goods are higher globally than when the same goods were produced domestically.

IN THE USA

IN ONTARIO

Dalton McGuinty’s Green Energy Act created a de facto indirect tax on energy consumers. Kathleen Wynne’s equally ill-considered cap-and- trade plan will have the same result.

 
As the European experience has clearly demonstrated, the 'green-power-driven' levy on electricity consumers in Ontario, followed by a cap-and-trade market, could become the final blow that drives industry out of our Province.

Ontario generates just 0.5 per cent of global carbon emissions. Even a giant 20-per-cent reduction would knock just a tenth of 1 per cent off global emissions. A minuscule gain for the globe, at a potentially enormous cost to the people of Ontario, and all Canadians.

D) ONTARIO'S HYDRO ONE

I recently received a solicitation of support from A Horwath regarding her opposition to the proposal to sell off portions of Hydro One. This Letter to NDP re Hydro One is my answer. Thought you might be interested.

Dear Ms Horwath,

While I do respect your leadership and commitment to serving the people of Ontario. I certainly am not an admirer of Hydro One as a publicly owned corporation.

I have a beach house on Boston’s South Shore. The power company is privately owned. For the past 10 years rates have never risen. They are quite cheap compared to the price Ontarian's presently pay for electricity. The service is excellent. It is seldom interrupted and the company’s workers do not find a quiet spot where a sleep in the truck in lieu of working is a somewhat common practice.

I am the owner of a small communications company in Fenelon Falls Ontario called Cable Cable Inc. We depend on Hydro One’s pole lines to deliver our services. Recently we received notice of a pole rental rate increase that amounts to approximately 70%. We were not allowed any input or consultation. If this is allowed to stand, then our customers will be facing a rise in rates. Is this one of the benefits of a government-owned facility?

Private corporations are forced to run efficiently and maintain a fair price structure. Cable Cable’s retail television prices and internet services are the lowest in Canada. We presently employ 23 full time workers and several summer students; all of whom live in the local area. I certainly am not a supporter of any publicly owned corporation that conducts itself in the manner that Hydro One employs. It is inefficient and costly. SELL IT OFF AND WATCH THE SERVICE GET MUCH BETTER AND CHEAPER. In the hands of private ownership their will be no need to worry about ‘Sunshine Lists’ or 'feather bedding' etc.

Yours truly
Tony Fiorini


Below is a response to my letter, that summarizes Hydro One inefficiencies and costly service.

That was well said Tony. Hydro unionism and fascism all rolled into one…and voila you have an unmanageable debt…so they crank up (electricity) costs through BS Green energy and drive all the jobs out of the province. Then increase the pay of all the Public Hydro employees…fully indexed pensions , fully paid by Hydro at age 52…then brought back on contract at 60 bucks an hour because the bozo government that runs these things is clueless....absolutely friggin clueless. And auto jobs are going to Mexico, because of energy costs , not labour.

THE QUESTION:

CONSERVATIVES, LIBERALS OR NDP. WHO CREATES THE BIGGEST BOONDOGGLES AND THE SMALLEST SOLUTIONS?

THE QUOTE:

TWEET TWEET

"Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's power and is not easy."-ARISTOTLE

THE LEMON:



TO:
GOLDMAN SACHS FOR PROPOSING THE IDEA OF A CAP AND TRADE MARKET.

 











THE CLIP: