Ottawa to get tough on coal plants - sort of, someday

Ontario's No EV Policy Now 3 Months Old 2010.05.07

Early in February 2010, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation stopped accepting registrations for electric vehicles in the province. There was no announcement, and no consultation with EV advocates or owners. The first few EV owners turned away at licence bureaus did not even get a reason for the refusal.

When pressed for information, MTO officials offered up some weak reasons. First, apparently large numbers of Ontarians were fraudulently claiming their vehicles were powered by electricity, so as to avoid Drive Clean tests. However, MTO's own data show less than 100 cars and light trucks are registered as electric in Ontario. (I can personally identify about 40 of those that are legitmately electric powered.) MTO has the authority to inspect anything they deem suspicious, and there are stiff penalties for false statements on registration forms, including fines and jail time.

Prior to the secret licensing ban, electric vehicles in Ontario were subject to exactly the same safety inspection, licensing and insurance rules as any other vehicle on the road. The question MTO still has not adequately answered is why this small population of clean-air, environmentally-friendly vehicles has been singled out for this degree of persecution, when street-racers actually have to commit an offence to suffer any penalty, and gross polluters can continue to operate on 'conditional' passes. For a government that claims to support green vehicles, this government has a very strange way of showing it.

Reasoned discussions with MTO officials since the secret ban was discovered have dragged out over many weeks, with little sign of progress toward getting the vehicles re-legalized in Ontario. The only incentive the Ontario government offers for buying or making an electric vehicle, small as it is, ends on June 30, 2010 with the introduction of the HST.

Tories Filibuster Their Own Committee

Well, if we were hoping the Tories would come back from their ill-advised prorogation and extended vacation in a better mood than they exhibited at the end of 2009, we've certainly been given notice that's not going to be the case.

First, we have seen 2 Cabinet ministers go postal on airport security staff. Not good form for a government that rides on the law and order agenda, especially after gutting their own legislation with the prorogation in 2009. But it's worse given the growing perception that this government has lost touch with voters, is chafing under the constraint of a minority government that won't let it ride roughshod over Canadians with a right-wing agenda they have to keep under wraps lest Canadians figure it out and toss them unceremoniously from office. Making matters worse, the slap on the wrist meted out to Rahim Jaffer smacks of two-tier justice.

The Throne speech and budget documents presented don't indicate any change of direction or "re-calibration" that could possibly warrant the prorogation. That just makes it that much more evident the prorogation was a stall tactic, likely trying to defuse the Afghan detainees committee hearings. That history taints the idea of having a judge vet materials to which the House of Commons has full rights to see uncensored. Our MPs are our final line of defense in trying to get to the truth in government matters in our system of democracy. Putting them off puts the definitive lie to this government's hollow claim to being open, accountable and transparent.

Well Done, Canada!

As a Canadian, and solely a mainstream observer of the events of the past two weeks of the Vancouver Olympics, I admit to a degree of second-hand pride in what I have seen. I'm sure there were issues I missed, and a couple of blemishes we all saw, but all in all it appeared a colossal success! Yesterday provided the crowning touches: 14 gold medal performances - the most by any country ever in a Winter Olympics; the men's hockey final with a script that could have been written for film; and, a closing ceremony that poked a bit of fun at the glitch in the opening ceremonies and allowed Catriona LeMay Doan a do-over on her opportunity to light the flame. However, this builds upon years of work by many people with inspiration, dedication, and perseverance. It was truly a showcase for this country, to the world, and more importantly, to ourselves. From using the event as an opportunity to teach people work skills, to the design and construction of the torches for the cross-country torch run, to battling the climate itself at Cypress Mountain, to the inclusion of the First Nations, to the design of the beautiful and unique medals, to showcasing an electric snowmobile at Whistler. We should also take a moment to think of all of those that were successful because we did not notice their efforts: facilities construction and maintenance, logistics required to house the athletes, spectators, media and others; the security staff who maintained order and ensured this event did not become a spectacle of the unwelcome sort; the games organizers and volunteers that kept things running in spite of the challenges seen and unseen by outsiders. Of course, this generation of Canadians will never forget the performance of the Canadian athletes, who clearly were the focus of the event, which is as it should be.

Let us all look back on these games as symbolic of what we can accomplish, on the podium, building the podium and behind it. Let us move forward with this flush of success on so many fronts, and with quiet pride build on it to create an even greater legacy that celebrates co-operation, inspiration, and perseverance - truly Canadian qualities.

February 22, 2010

Prorogation 2009 - the Rage Simmers

Prime Minister Harper Addresses B.C. Legislature

Undoubtedly hoping to bask in the glow of the Vancouver Olympics, Prime Minister Harper is the first PM to address the British Columbia Legislature. However, this venue offered other advantages. First, Harper's home turf is closed for the season due to his decision to prorogue in late December, scuttling his own law and order agenda that was on the order paper. Second, as he is not a BC MLA, he couldn't be questioned in that House. Third, no opportunity for the media to ask questions, something of a hazard associated with press conferences. Fourth, he could rely on BC security services (beefed up for the Olympics) in the event that the rabble, er, citizens decided to voice their opinion.

February 10, 2010

Boycott the Ottawa Water Rate Increase

Today, the Ottawa municipal government announced its intention to increase residential water rates by 10% in 2010. This follows three previous annual increases of 9% a year - about 40% in 4 years! This time its supposed to pay for rainwater storage to prevent overflows into the Ottawa River during rain storms. A mere $140,000,000.00 is the initial estimate, to store 12,500 cubic metres of storm water. Given it's an Ottawa project (where 0 means 4%), we can be sure the final tab will be considerably higher.

Hmmm, I figure 12,500 cubic metres would fill about 62,500 rain barrels. Figuring the city could get those for $40 a piece or less in that kind of bulk buy, that would cost about $2,500,000, and would result in a lot of rainwater never seeing the municipal wastewater treatment system. That's probably about one rain barrel per four homes in the Ottawa area. $2.5 million or $140 million? As an Ottawa taxpayer, there was never any doubt in my mind which way our municipal government would choose to go on this one.

Recalibrate the Buy America Canada Deal

If the too little, too much deal Canada struck with the U.S. this past week is what we get as a result of the government not being distracted by Parliament due to the prorogation, let's get them back in the House of Commons ASAP. As we're getting a look at the fine print, it's not looking pretty.

What are Canadian Investors Smoking?

Here are a few interesting little factoids.

In October 2008, the TSX composite was trading between 9,000 and 10,000 points. In January 2010, when we have 280,000 fewer Canadians employed, and even more less-employed (now working part time as opposed to full time previously), the TSX composite is trading above 11,000 points.

Note that this drop in employment is in spite of billions of dollars of government stimulus over the past year in Canada and the U.S., intended specifically to create jobs! (e.g., HRTC) This means that our government debt is growing, and we're going to have to make it up in the future via increased taxes. (First instalment coming in July for residents of Ontario and British Columbia as they fall subject to the HST.) Maybe it won't ding you much, but paying an extra 8% on all services and many of the products we buy is going to make a decided dent in our disposable income.

If we're likely to reduce our real consumption by 5 to 10% annually starting in the third quarter, what's that going to do to Canadian retailers and providers of services if most other Canadians do the same, because they're still waiting for the alleged economic recovery?

Credible commodities analysts are forecasting reduced demand later this year as major consumers built up inventory during 2009 when things looked relatively cheap. If commodities (oil, coal, base metals, etc) take another price hit or reduced demand or both, and we have fewer Canadians employed now than 15 months ago, where's the cause for optimism in the investment arena?

February 5, 2010

Jobs Report - Not Happy Days Yet!

The key words in the reports today were not 43,000 new jobs. The key words were "surprising", and "15,000 expected". I'm out here on main street, and I got one of those 43,000 jobs (at least as Stats Can would report it). And it's one of those part-time jobs, which made up 97% of the reported increase. Yup, just 3% of the net new jobs in January were full-time. This is in the wake of our federal government's full-court press on the stimulus side committing billions of dollars into job creation, and it managed to create just 1,400 new full-time jobs in January. Remember, we're still down almost 300,000 jobs from where we were in October 2008.

Too Funny!

Today, after slinking out of town in late December under the cloak of proroguing Parliament, CPC cabinet ministers appeared before the media to justify their plan to have the Commons sit through the customary March break and into June. The justification? According to Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis:
"The two break weeks need to be cancelled so we can work hard. We want to sit as much as possible in order to get the measures passed that we think Canadians want to see passed."

This from the brain-trust that felt there was so little of value for Parliament to do in mid-December that the only reasonable course of action was to declare a two-and-a-half-month vacation and kill all the Bills on the order paper.

Bzzzzt. Wrong. Thank's for playing. The national issues of December have not magically disappeared just because you chose to run away from them for a few weeks. There's no reason to believe they could not be dealt with at least as effectively now as a month or more in the future. The longer this takes, the more it looks like the CPC ran for cover before New Year's, and it is proving more and more to be an irresponsible course of action.

Time to head back to the bunker and "re-calibrate" this message.

Irony

Prorogation 'Aha! moment' punishes Tories in poll

Committee Work Dies, Too

Kill Bills II

Apparently some Canadians are being hoodwinked by the government spin specialists into believing that the prorogation is just a normal Parliamentary procedure, and its repeated use in 2008 and 2009 has no implications for the practice of democracy in our country. That's not the case. Prorogation doesn't stall legislation in the House of Commons and the Senate; it kills all the Bills in progress. Some may be resurrected in the next session, but there is no guarantee of that.

Putting the Rogue in Prorogation - CPC 2010

Prorogation is a time-honoured Parliamentary procedure. CPC apologists, please note that we are not arguing that point. Our issue is with the now annual inappropriate use of the procedure by this government.

"The most common use of prorogation in current times is to allow the government to re-cast its plans and agenda once it feels it has accomplished enough of its goals from the current session. It will then prorogue Parliament and set a new agenda through a new Speech from the Throne."
http://www.lawnow.org/Downloads/documentloader.ashx?id=6149

It is NOT intended as a way for a floundering minority government to avoid a non-confidence vote (CPC December 2008 - ending a session that was just 13 days old), or to shut down the work of Parliamentary committees that are proving the government has ignored its legal and moral commitments as the legal representative of our country regarding international law and negotiations (CPC December 2009).

It's pretty clear that this government had not accomplished the bulk of its goals after 13 days of business in 2008, nor has it accomplished the bulk of the work it set out in its last Throne speech given the number of Bills that died on the order paper this time around.

My MP is not serving my interests by going to the Olympics or sitting in his riding. Government serves my interests by addressing the issues of the day in Parliament, by working in committees and passing legislation.

If there is one benefit to be had from the current prorogation fiasco, I hope it is that Canadians will understand that the current government is putting its own interests ahead of the citizens it is sworn to serve, and perhaps our media will understand that Canadians want their fifth estate to provide real coverage of what our government is doing (or not doing).

January 23, 2010

Parliament Hill Prorogation Protest

As if it were an omen, today began bright and sunny - the first day of full sun for weeks in Ottawa. The bright light shining on those braving the chill on Parliament Hill today was in stark contrast to the opacity of the current government and what they hope to hide behind the cloak of prorogation. It was an honour to share the front lawn of Canada's house with so many others that truly believe in democracy for our country.

10n10.ca Launches

Out of my angst over the botched COP15 conference at Copenhagen, something positive!

Faced with a federal government apparently indifferent to the democratic process that put them in power, and opposed to taking action on climate change, at New Year's I decided to do something. National polls say Canadians want to take action on climate change. I know I do. So, I have made it my New Year's resolution to reduce my personal and household greenhouse gas emissions by 10% in 2010.

I have already spent years reducing my use of fossil fuels, so this won't be an easy undertaking for me. Still, I intend to do it. I call it 10 in 10.

Post-Copenhagen New Year's Resolution for 2010

Despite the best efforts of the spinmeisters to paint an 11th-hour pseudo-agreement to try to reach a future agreement for non-binding resolution to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to a level that isn't low enough as a success, most watchers (who didn't succumb to the inanity of it all) have reached a different conclusion. It was a lost opportunity, which wasted precious time and resources, driven by those who still put their own short term gain ahead of the long term benefit, and potentially even survival, of the human species. Our governments abdicated their responsibilities to their citizens in favour of the fossil fuels industries.

It has never been clearer than now that governments are not in tune with the desires of their citizens on the issue of climate change. If they were, we would have hard emissions targets for 2010, not fantasy goals for 2030 to 2050.

If we really want to make a difference in the short term on climate change, we need to start turning things around now. Most of us don't have the financial wherewithal to make a dramatic change in our energy production (e.g., putting in a solar power system to reduce coal-fired generation). However, most of us can find ways to reduce our actual energy consumption, especially if it means we can also save money.

This is my resolution for 2010: to reduce my fossil fuel consumption by 10% or more in 2010 relative to what it was in 2009. That is a hard target for 2010. I call it 10 in 10.

This is not about trying to send a message to our governments. This is about making real progress on climate change in spite of them.

I recognize that a 10% cut is not enough to solve the problem. However, it is a start in the right direction, and for many years, our industrialized and industrializing nations have been going in the wrong direction.

I have been trying to reduce my greenhouse gas emissions for some years now, so I don't have a lot of easy things left to do. However, I think this is important, and I intend to do it.

One person doing this won't have a measurable impact, so I want more people to participate. I also know it's easy to ask, and most of you think this will be hard to do. So, here's my offer. If readers of this blog indicate a reasonable level of interest, I will supply suggestions on how to reduce your fossil fuel use, and likely save money doing so.

Budget watchdog points to slow flow of stimulus

Econogics Launches EV Blog

If you want an electric car, make your own

It all has a dreary familiarity to it. The mainstream media pump up the arrival of the electric car prototypes (1970s, 1990s and again now), then the automakers and our governments (cheered on by Big Oil) take them away from us like Lucy with Charlie Brown's football. (If you remember that from the Peanuts comic strip, maybe you also remember the previous alleged comings of the electric car.)

Ontario finally legalized the Low Speed electric Vehicle (LSV) this past summer, just a decade after U.S. states did so. But in an artful display of doublethink, they then added regulations that ensured no production model could qualify. Then, when they announced incentives for electric cars in July to take effect in the second half of 2010, the LSV was specifically excluded from the incentives, although it would have qualified based on the skimpy details provided at the time of the announcement. Stay tuned while they find a reason to exclude conversions and the few EVs already on the road in Ontario from the incentives as well. It's not as though we really want to foster a new, green industry in the province that would create jobs (vehicle manufacturing, sales, batteries, electric motors, other components).

Now with confusion as to what incentives will really apply in the U.S., and when, it appears more of the erstwhile EV makers will likely disappear.

October 7, 2009

Algonquin College Green Homes and Lifestyle Showcase

Yesterday, I spent five hours at the Green Home and Lifestyle Showcase at Algonquin College. Turnout for this free-admission event was light, so it afforded me time to have longer discussions than is usually the case at tradeshows. Further, it was a no-sales, information-only affair, so I was looking forward to some animated discussions with college students, as the event was situated on their turf and the price was right. In that regard, I was rather disappointed.

Before I proceed, let me set the stage for you. I was sitting behind a small table, along with 40 to 50 other exhibitors, most with identical tables. Most of the tables were set up with product or advertising services, and most were on topic, though a couple seemed out of place to me.

October 1, 2009

PHEV 09 Trade Show

September 29, 2009

EI Figures - What They Don't Tell Us

September 22, 2009

Better Place orders 100,000 Electric Cars

The mainstream media completely ignored this story. That's unfortunate, as this could be the moment that changes everything for automobile transportation in the next decade! Renault now has the order they need to start real mass production of an all-electric, battery-only, car. That's the volume that can achieve volumes of scale to make electric cars truly affordable, at least in Europe, in the next few years.

Those of us living in North America can rest easy, knowing that our domestic automakers have no intention of providing us with a real electric car any time soon.

July 25, 2009

Ontario Announcement Regarding Incentives for EVs and PHEVs

An Open Letter to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty

Dear Premier McGuinty:

I would like to thank you for your government's recent apparent reversal regarding support for clean air transportation in Ontario.

July 21, 2009

Irrational enthusiasm in the markets

Last week, North American stock and commodity markets were showing a correction (downward trend) that was comprehensible given underlying economic data. This week, a rally has taken hold that defies understanding. The underlying fundamentals have not improved markedly. Unemployment figures continue to rise. Earnings reports may be 'beating expectations', but in general they are not particularly good. Those companies that are showing increased earnings are doing so by slashing expenses - including ongoing maintenance and normal internal infrastructure investments. While that may improve the bottom line in the short term, the real concern is that the top line is not improving. In the longer term, the current cost slashing is killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. This cost slashing reduces employment and purchases from suppliers. In turn, the suppliers reduce inventories, dropping their purchases and leading them to cut jobs as well. As more people lose jobs, they reduce their expenses, including housing, dining out, consumer products, entertainment and services. All of this feeds the downward spiral. The downward spiral means more businesses will see a continuing decline in their top line. If that continues, eventually they have to close their doors.

Until we see some sign of recovery (not just a slowing in the rate the economy is shrinking), there is no fundamental reason why the equity or commodity markets, as a whole, should be rising in value. Companies will not be growing. Consumer discretionary income will not be increasing. If consumers aren't buying, then companies that service them (e.g., automakers, appliance makers, housing, airlines, banks) aren't selling, or making profits. That means no earnings to pay out to shareholders. So, where's the basis for the apparent enthusiasm for equities and commodities the past few days?

Ironically, the trigger for the rally seems to have been the surprisingly strong earnings report of Goldman Sachs last week. This is one of the major U.S. financial institutions that was so over-leveraged due to its gambling positions that it required U.S. government support (TARP) in order to simply survive in the past year. Sadly, their fast recovery seems to have emboldened their management with a sense of invincibility. It appears they are intent on returning the days of high risk strategies and high bonuses for senior executives - exactly the practices that triggered the international financial crisis of 2008.

It appears the high rollers and speculators that burned so many investors in 2008, while surviving off the tax dollars gouged from the very people they burned, are intent on re-inflating the bubble. In my opinion, this strategy is destined to repeat the cycle of 2008, on a lesser scale only due to the number of folks that lost a lot of money, or are now taking a more conservative stance.

June 21, 2009

Where are the JOBS?

On this Father's Day 2009, perhaps we're supposed to consider it reassuring that we got the equivalent of a paternalistic pat on the head this week from Prime Minister Harper on the subject of Employment Insurance specifically, and the economy in general. It didn't work for me. If Mr. Ignatieff wants to represent me, he should not have folded like a cheap tent on the questions that needed to be asked. EI reforms that might happen in 2010 are not helping with the problems today and of the past six months, where Mr. Ignatieff is supposed to be holding the government to account. Still, it appears both believe all is well in the economy, and it's time to take a long, paid, summer vacation.

These are the questions that were sidestepped in the media sham (June 11) announced as the Economic Stimulus Report Card.
1) How much of the stimulus package money announced 5 months ago has actually reached the street?
2) How many infrastructure projects funded by the 2009 Budget have actually started work?
3) How many jobs have been created in Canada directly due to the 2009 Budget stimulus package?
4) Where have those jobs been created?

The stated Budget target was the creation (or protection) of 190,000 jobs. Since January, the number of unemployed Canadians has increased every month but one (and I suspect the April figures were a complete anomoly at best). So, where are the jobs?

The timeline that got us here: