Unprecedented case could affect Liberals’ political future
The potential political consequences of a sitting premier testifying in open court on allegations her most trusted adviser and a prominent Liberal fundraiser bribed a would-be Liberal candidate cannot be overstated.
Leaving aside this trial, the Liberals have foolishly, recklessly and repeatedly treated Ontario as their own fiefdom to rule as they see fit — and the rules be damned.
Yes, the Ontario election is ten months away, but if the PC’s are at 50% in Toronto….
However:
“If anything is going to be dangerous to affecting his base, it’s going to be that,” Maggi said. Among PC supporters, 47 per cent strongly or somewhat disapproved of Brown’s plan to implement a carbon tax. Forty per cent approved and 13 per cent didn’t know how to feel about it.
From NWC
Electricity prices to soar after four years, says secret Liberal cabinet document…
Once boasting one of the continent’s lowest electricity rates, Ontario today has some of the highest and that has many industrial companies planning to move at least some operations to the United States.
“The government treats us like bourgeois sweatshop operators who have to be stopped,” said Bamford, who has organized dozens of medium-sized companies into the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers of Ontario. “All the businesses are terrified of the government. My husband said, ‘Well, do you just want to pick up and go?’ And I said, ‘Well, I guess I gotta just stay and fight.’ I feel like I’m the Norma Rae of manufacturing.”
Automatic Coating’s electricity bill has more than doubled in the past decade. Its bill for last November was $49,209.68. The first line is for electricity: $6,577.93. The second line is much harder to explain: it is the euphemistic Global Adjustment charge: 217,165 kWh at 11.6 cents each for a total of $25,223.73.
The Global Adjustment contains many different costs, including Ontario’s payments to solar and wind energy makers at far more than the market rate, the cost to sell excess power to U.S. states at a loss, and even the cost of replacing light bulbs with LED bulbs.
These people are nuts. And so is any government that follows in their footsteps.
It’s deliberate;
Tricia Barry, executive director of Money School Canada and a former banker, says despite promises by the provincial education ministry in 2011 to “integrate” money management into the Grade 4-12 curriculum, students know little more about money than they did five years ago.
She was so upset with the Liberal’s “broken promises” — what she cheekily calls financial literacy gate — she produced a discussion paper last November showing how little is being done.
Because it’s essential to the success and survival of socialism.
The 56-year-old life-long Athens resident said she doesn’t have any other choice. Last month’s hydro bill was $7,000 because of delivery and other surcharges – an anomaly, for sure – but her hydro bills average $2,000 to $3,000 or more a month.
“They kill you; they kill the little guy,” she said of the hydro rates, which cost a quarter of that only a few years ago.
On top of the hydro bill are property taxes of close to $4,000 a year and Canada Pension Plan and Employment Insurance payments of around $1,000 a month for her two full-time and one part-time employees. The government regulations and harassment by the “tobacco police,” who enforce provincial cigarette laws factor in as well.
Swan said she can’t make ends meet and is losing money every month, so she has no choice but to shut down.
These stories never receive national coverage. The narrative wouldn’t like that.
Hospitals laying off due to rising hydro costs https://t.co/G6AlzV56bE #onpoli
— Rebecca Thompson (@thompson) March 14, 2017
An Ottawa greenhouse operation has hit a hydro snag in its attempt to mimic Mother Nature. SunTech Greenhouses in Manotick had installed a million dollar L-E-D lighting system to grow produce year round but after doing the math, the owner decided not to flip the switch.
Two years ago, SunTech installed row upon row of L-E-D lights in one and a half acres of its greenhouses. It was an expensive experiment trying to mimic Mother Nature. The problem is the sun is free; hydro not so much.
[…]
What’s happening here is happening to greenhouse growers throughout Ontario. Soaring power prices was one reason why NatureFresh Farms recently expanded into Ohio.
Peter Quiring is the CEO of NatureFresh Farms, “You know what’s really crazy?” he says, “In Ohio, we’re buying power for what Ontario is paying other jurisdictions to take that power. So instead of expanding here, we’ve expanded there using our power, so to speak.”
h/t Maz2
Not listed: any of our dogs, the cat down the street, Casey from Mr. Dress-Up.
If current polling numbers hold, party leadership might be the only stable job left in the Ontario Liberal Party.
Via, NewsHubNation
Nothing to worry about. If things get out of control, they can simply implement wage and price controls.
It cannot have escaped the attention of many that Ontario is most unsettled these days. That its industries are anxious, its debt colossal, its citizens not in a pleasant mood. Ontario is in a lot of pain. But let me assure readers outside Ontario that it has not all been for nothing. There are rewards. They are subtle, intangible, but they are real. Let me explain….
h/t nold
Be afraid: The brains behind Ontario’s energy disaster are now running the country
Alleged bribery: Top Liberals face Elections Act charges in Sudbury case
Let’s play blame the bookkeeper!
In the government’s public accounts for 2015-16, the Independent Electricity System Operator reported a “previously unrecognized actuarial loss and past service costs” of just over $80 million.
The provincial agency which oversees Ontario’s electricity market says it will raise fees it charges the power industry to recover the losses as part of its accumulated deficit charge.
Abitibi Consolidated to close in Kenora 360 loss jobs, company cited ON's high energy costs as one reasons for closing mill. @anthonyfurey
— Karen (@KarenPtbo) October 22, 2016
I asked you to keep me informed about the $1.9 billion you are extracting out of the Ontario economy in new carbon taxes. I was excited when you promised lots of new jobs and reductions in carbon emissions. Then I saw the July jobs report. Wow, 36,100 Ontario jobs lost in a single month, the worst decline since the recession, and you still haven’t told me any good news about carbon emission reductions. I guess your new plan is not working.
Maybe it would have been better to leave that $1.9 billion in the hands of the Ontario businesses that were using it to hire employees before you taxed it away from them.
However, I hear it’s not all bad news on the Ontario job front. While the private sector is losing jobs by the tens of thousands under your new tax policies, you have been busy creating some really interesting opportunities for your staff. I don’t know how I missed this, but apparently you lost $70 million setting up and then cancelling the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (ORPP) in June. While in operation only six months, you hired some really special people that walked away with millions of taxpayers’ dollars for apparently doing nothing. It sounds so ridiculous that I am assuming I must have it wrong, and that’s why I’m putting pen to paper.
So here goes, true or false?
h/t Mike
And they told us the Sponsorship Scandal was just a “Quebec” problem.
Political staff of many Ontario cabinet ministers double as fundraisers for the Liberal Party, encouraging companies that do business with government to buy tickets to private events hosted by the same ministers who make decisions on contracts and policy.
The Globe and Mail has obtained several invitations to Liberal fundraisers that list ministerial aides as contact people selling tickets.
And more than a half dozen sources in companies doing business with the province say it is commonplace for staffers to invite them to donate to the politicians they deal with.