Ontario’s provincial government will be going ahead with dozens of large-scale wind and solar projects. In the process, hundreds of smaller energy projects will have to be delayed thanks to limited access to the province’s power grid.
According to Energy Minister Brad Duguid, 39 new wind and solar installations and one hydro-electric station are on the way. These will generate 872 megawatts in one to three years, which is enough juice to light up 200,000 homes.
“Our long-term energy plan is working, and we’re attracting billions of dollars of private investment and creating thousands of clean energy jobs,” said Duguid. ”These projects alone represent an estimated 7,000 direct and indirect jobs and $3 billion in private sector investment.”
Provincial PC leader Tim Hudak called the numbers a “fantasy,” while the NDP chimed in to say that Ontario’s Liberals have no remaining credibility on the matter. The problem, says the loyal opposition, is that the government has mishandled up to 1,000 smaller energy projects that can’t connect to the distribution system.
The Liberals recently announced a moratorium on off-shore wind farms, marking what opposition leaders called a “spectacular backtrack” in the area of provincial energy resources. ”These guys made an expensive mess of the energy file and families are stuck with the bill,” said Hudak.
“The government makes a big splash with their announcements and then they don’t iron out the details and everything falls apart,” added NDP leader Andrea Horwath. ”I think the government likes to paint a rosy picture, but we don’t know the details of the contracts yet or how firm those job numbers are.”
The province had so many farmers sign up for subsidies on small solar projects that they had trouble hooking 1,000 of them up to the grid, so there is a good reason to remain sceptical about the digits. 4,000 were connected to the microFIT program for small solar generators and the Liberals want to get as many people hooked up to it as possible. The problem is that farmers and others are making investments in the technology without knowing if they can get hooked up to the grid, which spells trouble in a political sense for the Libs.
So will these projects pan out? Or will the Liberals have more ‘splaining to do? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Ontario Hospitals Coerce Elderly Patients with $1,800 Charges
Anyone who’s been reading through the Toronto Star‘s reporting on the health care system in the province of Ontario, more than a few hair-raising pieces of information have been revealed.
One of the most astounding pieces to hit the series is the revelation of hospitals threatening elderly patients with $1,800 fees. This is designed to coerce the patients into moving on out of a hospital bed and into the next available nursing home bed.
“It is completely inappropriate and unacceptable for any individual in this province in a hospital waiting for long-term care to be charged more than $53.23 per day,” the province’s Health Minister Deb Matthews said in the legislature on Tuesday.
Ontario hospitals are by law allowed to charge the aforementioned $53.23 per day for patients waiting to get into a nursing home, but that’s where the dollars stop. They aren’t allowed to charge more than that, so Matthews and others are obviously greeting the ol’ $1,800 threat with more than a few raised eyebrows.
“I want you to know that my ministry and my officials are working with the LHIN, with the hospitals, to ensure that they understand the proper application of this policy and that other hospitals, in fact, across the province do understand that it is completely unacceptable to charge anything more than $53.23 a day,” Matthews said.
According to Matthews and the Toronto Star, the Health Minister is sending out “reminders” to hospitals about the extra charges.
“Families are desperately trying to access the care they need but they’re finding a system in complete shambles. Instead of helping families, the government slaps them with exorbitant fees. Why are families being punished for this government’s failures?” New Democratic Party leader Andrea Horwath said during question period.
The Toronto Star reporting has been highlighting many of the lowlights in Ontario’s “Aging At Home” program, a $1.1 billion strategy designed to help deal with the province’s shortage of home care capabilities. Some facilities are apparently turning to coercive measures to clear out hospital beds, with the $1,800 charges coming out into the open.
The strategy is receiving criticism from all sides, with some suggesting that it is “causing a crisis” in emergency wards across the province. This $1,800 tactic isn’t going to improve that sentiment, as seniors continue to get pushed around in Ontario.