Chemise Burda Joslyn Higginson
Feb. 24, 2009
Feb. 24, 2009
Ontario's new Green Energy Act could unlock Ontario's green energy potential and set the province on the path to genuine global......
Legislation's big cracks need sealing
TheStar.com
February 25, 2009 Jim Coyle
George Smitherman had his Miss America moment this week and sweeter than that it does not get.
Like the beauty-queen speech made in breathless support of world peace, Ontario's minister of energy and infrastructure pledged himself wholeheartedly – as he introduced his Green Energy and Green Economy Act – in favour of a cleaner environment, of jobs, of wind and solar power, of entrepreneurship, of a conservation culture.
The applause for this unimpeachable initiative – as Smitherman promised to turn Ontario 40 shades of green – was widespread and impressive.
So universal was the enthusiasm, in fact, it was almost impossible to find anyone taking up a contrary position in favour of pollution, unemployment, coal, or the ruinous depletion of the planet.
By some accounts, Smitherman's GE-GE Act was destined to take its place alongside the GI Bill and the U.S. federal Highway Act as historic legislation that changes the landscape of society and the prospects of a people.
Premier Dalton McGuinty told reporters the bill "hits a sweet spot, so to speak." A little later, perhaps feeling he had undersold the initiative, the premier told the Legislature it "hit the sweet spot of sweet spots."
Ah, but as even the beauty queen knows, there's many a slip between good intentions, however praiseworthy and prettily expressed, and the donning of the old tiara for the walk down the runway.
So, too, for the minister did a few nagging questions remain about the means – and price tag – of getting to the brave new wind-turbine-dotted future from here.
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