Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
CBC – Ontario to hit record $14.1B deficit in 2009
Lorrie Goldstein – [McGuinty] is using taxpayers’ money to massively subsidize wind — paying 13.5 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity generated from wind turbines (19 cents for offshore projects) compared to the normal cost of generation of four to five cents. […] The province has been flooded with so many applications for offshore wind farms that Natural Resources Minister Donna Cansfield announced last week it won’t consider any more until next year, just so it can catch up on the paperwork.
Update: National Post – “Ontario deficit to hit $25-billion”
We have some mediocre provincial governments in Canada, but none of the others even comes close to Dalton Minimum in terms of profligacy, waste, mismanagement and disastrously mistaken policy. Bob Rae’s Ontario government was terrible too, but at least they stopped (or were stopped) before fully going over the brink.
It is just horrible to witness what is happening to Canada’s erstwhile economic engine and to the good solid conservative people of large swaths of Ontario because of the incredibly deluded thinking of those who were elected by their largely urban “progressive” fellow citizens.
There is no schadenfreude here in the breast of this prairie dweller, because the mentality that is destroying Ontario is very much present in most parts of the country including the prairies, and is striving desperately to bring the Dalton Minimum to the rest of the country. Moreover, as Ontario is diminished, so are the rest of us.
Thanks for the encouragement, jlc!
Actually … the more I see of McGuinty and his crew of incompetents in actio the more annoyed I am about that dumbass John Tory and the people who put him in charge of getting rid of the Liberals in Ontario.
And Felis C. is absolutely correct …. they are dragging us down with them.
This has been my major beef with Quebec for decades … intransigent fools who see themselves as the center of the universe.. blame everyone else for their problems …. and do nothing but suck away at our national resources.
Never enough for these people either! Is it?
hey philboy, a couple of points. First off, Steve did the fiscally responsible thing with the surplus he inherited. He paid down the debt, saving us billions in future interest payments. And he reduced tax levels to be more in line with spending. Secondly, he is still in a minority position, and would be unable to implement any sort of deep budget cuts due to this simple fact. Third, the mismanagement of Ontario by Dalton is having a direct effect on the federal budget. Ontario has been losing manufacturing jobs for eight years in a row now. Red hot economies in Alberta, Nfld, and Sask have offset this up until now.
Finally, a question for you. If Ontario taxes are about a fourth of federal taxes, and Dalton has driven manufacturing in Ontario into the ground, does the $25 billion deficit he’s experiencing because of it translate into a $100 billion deficit for the feds?
Time for a new conservative government in Ontario. Time for a conservative mayor of Toronto and time for a conservative majority in Ottawa. Let’s stop whining and start talking to our families, neighbours, friends, co-workers, employees, whoever and make them wake up!!
“…time for a conservative majority in Ottawa.”
Don’t you mean “time for a conservative GOVERNMENT in Ottawa”? Good luck with that.
Is there a soul left in Ontario with an ounce of respect for that lying McSack of Sh1t!!!!!?
federal conservative governments have racked up deficits and debt far in excess of any Liberal government, for the past 38 years.
Government is the problem people.
Politicians are big government ambassadors, cheerleaders, and heralds.
I’ll be the first to say that Harper and crew could be a lot more right wing. My views are fairly well known around here. All the same, with at least 75% of the media and a good part of the establishment in the back pockets of the liberals it is difficult to sell bitter tasting medicine to children isn’t it?
Indiana, Marko and hardboiled, sorry to start something. It just irks me to hear Prentice mouthing that carbon whatever nonsense. I suspect it will irk me even more when my energy bills start to skyrocket.
All I got to say is the chickens are coming home to roost…and there will be no difference between Ontario and California shortly. None.
To borrow Kate’s phrase…”Ontario Not Broke Enough”…you’ll see it alot in the months to come.
No wonder they love Obama in Centrel Canada.
Like him there going to spend themselves into poverty while the State grows & grows. As this Provincial Government engorges itself on your Taxes. For social fads that in the end are bogus, but money eaters in an inevitable power pyramid con for legislators. To make Government yet bigger while burying your individual rights for a collective run by whoever is the most psycho. Of course any spare lucre would end up in their pockets, or friends.
This is what you get Ontario for voting Socialists & Communists.
Its why red Ed in Alberta, is last years Christmas tree.
The socialist knows it too. Political death is not far away for him.
You ought to let it be known in your Province it will go the same way. By the way? Why are we still subsidizing Quebec when where the ones with deposits?
JMO
Those who still believe in wind power should google IESO and then check out “Hourly Generator Output and Capability”. October is usually a fairly windy month and yet the wind farms are only generating 25% of their capability. Imagine how little power they generate during the “dog days of summer.This is another green con game and the Ontario tax payers are filling the pockets of politicians and foreign companies that build the wind beaters. There are no green jobs here except for the manufacturers in Denmark, Germany and the USA.
Western Canadian
” As it was explained to me, the Alberta deficit was like an insurance policy against it’s own coffers being raided by the feds. I even thought that was a little far fetched, but no more.”
While I think you are giving the Stelmach government way too much credit for creativity it is possible that they might have blundered into a strategy that will have the same net result. Alberta may actually survive the Stelmach term provided we have the sense to install Morton as leader by the next term.
Something other residents of Ontario should be on the lookout for is MacSlippery’s next move and that is the downloading of provincial responsibility’s to the municipal level. There’s already some back peddling going on to fund conservation authorities under the Clean Water Act by muncipalities instead of the province. Keep your hands on your wallets and purses and hold tight!!! they are out to wring every last dime out of us wherever they can. Beware.
The wind farm on Wolfe Island, East of Kingston, is being paid 27 cents/kWh.
Just noticed this sentence in a new light:
“[McGuinty] is using taxpayers’ money to massively subsidize wind ”
eh?
hardboiled, I’m sick and tired of your BS.
the truth
People of Ontario, Please do not come to Sask. looking for employment, just like Quebecors we don’t want any of you to move out here.
“After all, he inherited this mess from Mike Harris…
What did dear leader Steve inherit? A multi-Billion$ surplus which he squandered into the biggest deficit in history. But I’m sure that’s the fault of the Liberals …..
Posted by: philboy at October 27, 2009 3:20 PM”
It can’t be emphasized enough, a “government surplus” is defacto.. o-v-e-r t-a-x-a-t-i-o-n.
Sheesh, economics majors sure aren’t what they used to be.
A few points:
The windmill farm on Wolfe Island is due south of Kingston, and it has ruined the view from Kingston’s waterfront. The tab is a half a billion and counting, and it is now a feature for real estate listings on Wolfe Island to be out of sight of the windmills.
You think it is bad for Ontario now?????
Just wait until the pension tsunami starts rolling through this province. Provincial, county and municipal unfunded liabilities are going to put Ontario into receivership.
There is no possible way that the province will be able to meet those pension obligations…..unless they drive taxes up to the point where the rest of our industrial base collapses.
As Jed Clampett would day…..californeee, here we come.
It can’t be emphasized enough, a “government surplus” is defacto.. o-v-e-r t-a-x-a-t-i-o-n.
Sheesh, economics majors sure aren’t what they used to be.
~eastern paul
Too true.
What I can’t understand is how there can be a government surplus and a national debt at the same time.
Hard
Sure we disagree, but just a little bit.
I hate crap’ntrade tax, agw rhetoric as much as everyone. Two years ago up until last year I naively thought it was a good enough catalyst for western separation. My point is I dislike the whole situation as much as you, I’ve just accepted that this battle is lost. There is absolutely no political will or resistance in Canada to this issue. The politics are “settled” as far as Ottawa is concerned. This is indisputable is it not?
The housing crash was caused by government incompetence in the U.S.
McGuinty is just trying to prove that he’s every bit as incompetent as any American politician, he likes equality you know.
The federal government isn’t being much better with this “HST”. Just another way for them to get our money while their pretending to do us a favour, Flaherty says the HST will lower taxes? He’s a bum imo.
It might be worth noting that these higher, premium rates for wind power, solar power, etc. are not, as seems to be believed by most here and author of the Sun article, subsidized out of general tax revenues. They are instead subsidized by the electricity ratepayer base, so we pay more on each electricity bill than we would if we weren’t subsidizing these renewable sources. Ie. if we were only burning coal or natural gas, we’d have lower bills each month. Whether we pay 13.5c/kW for wind or 135c/kW for wind doesn’t affect the budget deficit, in other words.
Although Ontario’s misguided energy policy is no doubt a contributor to the province’s continued descent into have-not territory, Goldstein has unfortunately got it wrong. It is not the Ontario taxpayer that is paying inflated rates for wind and solar generated energy, but the rate payer, with predictable results for the energy-intensive manufacturing sector.
Under the Green Energy Act, McGuinty will be saddling our utility bills not only with high-cost renewable power, but all sorts of additional charges to fund his green agenda. All those subsidies for energy efficiency and green energy will also be coming out of our electricity bills.
This is the ultimate deception as technically it is not a tax, and any spending of these monies will not count as government expenditures.
I’m amazed that Goldstein didn’t get this right. Usually his columns on energy policy and climate change are right on target.
I think in 20 years, after the hype has gone away, and people are no longer emotionally invested in it, the true cost of wind power will be known to be up 100 times more expensive than nuclear power.
If it was free, I wish we could have a “renewable” power grid, and an entirely separate grid for power generation that actually works. Then we could banish all the Greens off to the “renewable” grid, where power was not reliable or cheap, and the rest of us could get on with our lives.
Perhaps the good people of Ontario are finally getting fed up. According to the latest Environics poll (out yesterday), The McGuinty-led Liberals are now trailing the provincial Tories 37% to 32%, with the NDP at 19% and the Greens at 11%. Here’s the web page.
Brian, I know you are trying to put an optimistic spin on this news. My take, however, is that any population that has 30% claiming they will vote NDP or Green and another 32% that they will continue to vote for the deranged Daltonite lunatics who are currently presiding over their demise, is not fed up enough yet!