I doubt very much whether…

I doubt very much whether anyone in the new Ford administration has even read the Cap & Trade legislation or the Ontario 5 Year Climate Change Action Plan.

What many people don't know is exactly how the previous Ontario government was spending the 2 billion dollars in annual revenue from Cap & Trade.

Cap & Trade was the revenue generator for a larger initiative called the Ontario 5 Year Climate Change Action Plan. Included in the plan was the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and the Green Investment Bank.

The Green Bank was established to provide investment and start up capital for the new wave of innovative Ontario entrepreneurs with better ideas in Green Tech. When it comes to alternative energy in the words of Rocky Balboa – Ontario could have been a Green Tech contender. Oh well, water under the bridge.

The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund – also part of the plan provided incentives and funding for home, business, hospitals, apartment buildings, universities and colleges and more to make energy improvements that would not only cut their costs but reduce their carbon footprint as well.

Covered under the program and of interest to home and business owners were such things as electric cars and trucks and charging units, heat pumps - air source and geothermal, solar and solar thermal, and the elimination of HST on many low and no carbon alternatives. There were plenty of incentives for larger applications like hospitals, apartment buildings, universities and colleges too.

One part of the plan I especially liked but didn't get any press was - “Grow the workforce for a low-carbon buildings sector: New and expanded training programs will be developed to ensure Ontario’s buildings sector has the skilled workers it needs to compete in a low-carbon economy, and to help reduce the carbon footprint of Ontario homes and buildings.”

I write all this because I find myself comparing quotes to install an Air Source Heat Pump in my own home. Sadly, I am too late for any of the aforementioned incentives – Ford could have at least left the elimination of HST in place – but again, water under the bridge.