HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2016-05-25, Page 5Wednesday, May 25, 2016 • Huron Expositor 5
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Grits' natural gas ban would prove costly
There's a reason 76%
of Ontario's resi-
dents use natural
gas to heat their homes.
The fuel is convenient,
efficient and in recent
years inexpensive when
compared to other energy
sources.
In short, Ontarians
have chosen a fuel that
works the best for them.
And yet according to a
leaked report from the
provincial government,
that's not good enough.
Kathleen Wynne's Liber-
als want to ban the use of
natural gas as a heat
source for newly built
structures by 2030, as part
of a comprehensive plan
to reduce Ontario's car-
bon footprint.
What would owners,
occupants or tenants of
those structures be forced
to use instead? Geother-
mal heating and cooling
systems, whose costly pur-
chase would be subsi-
dized by the public purse.
Or electricity, whose use
has caused so much worry
among Ontarians as
prices have skyrocketed.
Even Wynne's govern-
ment has recognized the
problem of rising costs and
has for years encouraged
off-peak consumption to
help lower bills. And yet in
an irony that's probably
lost on the premier and her
colleagues, the draft cli-
mate change action plan
would cause consumption
of more electricity.
Of course, the Liberals'
plan is just that, a plan, and
a lot of things can happen
before 2030. The document
was leaked to the Globe
and Mail, most likely by a
government insider either
aghast with its contents or
ordered to measure the
public's reaction.
The initial reaction was
one of shock by some
who thought the scheme
a joke. But reaction from
the natural gas industry
was more interesting. A
spokesperson for Union
Gas said the Chatham -
based utility has been in
regular discussion with
the Liberals about cli-
mate and environmental
issues, but was given no
consultation about the
Let's cut PM some slack on overly -hyped actions
Michael Den Tandt
Let us try, for the
sake of the exer-
cise, to place our-
selves in Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau's mind,
early Wednesday
evening.
For starters, you're
beat. It's been a brutal,
gruelling day. House
Leader Dominic LeB-
lanc has morphed into
Six -Gun Sam, using pro-
cedural tricks to force
the opposition parties
into line on Bill C-14,
the assisted dying law.
But that's not going so
well. The Conservatives
and New Democrats
have reacted angrily to
being strong-armed.
(The motion in question
was withdrawn
Thursday).
Question period on
this day, you quietly
admit to yourself, was
another car wreck, with
the democratic institu-
tions minister sticking
to her increasingly des-
perate -sounding justifi-
cations for changing
Canada's electoral sys-
tem by cabinet order.
You know quite well,
that a referendum will
be the kiss of death to
your plan to replace the
150 -year-old
first -past -the -post sys-
tem. But you won't give
up without a fight.
As you contemplate
these woes, you see that
nearby, Tory whip Gor-
don Brown is having trou-
ble getting to his seat,
where he needs to be for
an imminent vote to
impose time allocation
on debate over C-14.
Brown is encircled by a
gaggle of NDP MPs, who
appear to be deliberately
blocking his path.
Mischief!
What could be sim-
pler? Solve this now.
Stand, walk down there
and take the poor man
by the hand, guide him
from the lion's den.
And it all goes beauti-
fully, your backbench-
ers are delighted, it's
going to be another
rabbit -from -the -hat
win -- until you regain
your seat and realize
that, in your hurry, you
bumped an MP who'd
been standing behind
you, NDP up-and-
comer Ruth Ellen Bros-
seau. You bumped her
quite hard, and she's
left the chamber to col-
lect herself.
So you go after her,
thinking to apologize.
Whereupon you are
confronted by an
enraged Thomas Mul- nightclub and he's no
cair. This really is bad,
you realize with grow-
ing horror. You back off,
steeling yourself now
for the inevitable sack-
cloth -donning and
apologies. It was not,
you think as you dash
past the media to an
unpleasant chat with
your horrified senior
advisers, your finest
hour. But you don't yet
know the half of it.
For this is the takeaway
from this incident: It
solidifies the narrative
that you just weren't
ready, just as those awful
Conservative attack ads
said. It is the incident Ste-
phen Harper's strategists
bet all their money on in
2014 and 2015 -- only it
happened, for them,
about eight months too
late.
Trudeau is a risk -taker.
It runs in his family. It's
there in his dad's famous
pirouette and the familial
pursuit of sports such as
white -water paddling and
boxing. It's obvious even
in Trudeau's choice to
work, in his early 20s, as a
bouncer.
The conceptual gap
here, which explains
the genuine fury that
greeted the PM's
actions, is this is not a
bouncer. In any profes-
sional workplace, phys-
ical integrity is
assumed. Yet an oppo-
sition MP was pro-
pelled along by the
wrist and elbow as
though he were an
unruly drunk. And a
female MP was bumped
hard, by the most pow-
erful man in the coun-
try, because of his
haste and physical
carelessness.
This happened in a
place where stylized
courtesy is part of the fur-
niture, precisely to pre-
vent incidents just like
this, one imagines. Exag-
gerations and spin aside,
the opposition is correct:
It is a big deal. It is
unacceptable.
Trudeau will be pub-
licly contrite, as he was
Wednesday night and
again Thursday. He will
be chided by his staff and
by his wife. He will feel
genuine personal
remorse, I'm guessing.
Will that be enough?
Simmer down, act your
station and do your job,
with less spectacle and
more unassuming work,
is what most fair-minded
Canadians would sug-
gest to him now. Good
advice.
2030 ban.
This isn't surprising,
given this government's
poor record in engaging the
public on public policy. The
Green EnergyAct of 2009
provides the template. The
original legislation allowed
for no local voice on the
location of thousands of
wind turbines. That deci-
sion is centralized,
although the turbines
aren't. And even after the
policy was tweaked to per-
mit a whisper of local dis-
content, that discontent is
routinely ignored.
The Liberal draft climate
change action plan smacks
of the same centralized
arrogance. Never mind
most Ontario homes are
heated with natural gas -- a
decision made by people
in their own best interest.
Given the expense of elec-
tricity, how many would
convert to electric heat?
Probably not one.
Politicians are routinely
accused of having a hid-
den agenda. Now we
know Wynne's. And it's
going to cost us a bundle.
-- Peter Epp
letter to the editor
Special anniversary for Galbraith
Dear Editor:
The Galbraith Camp for
Kids has been providing
day camp fun for area
youngsters since 1991. A
celebration of our 25 years
is taking place on Sunday,
June 5 at 2:30 p.m. at the
camp located at 7407 Road
140.
Thank you for letting us
use your newspaper to
reach out to the hundreds
of former campers and staff.
Dianne Josling,
Optimist Club of Mitchell
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