More Sneaky Underhanded Tricks From Kathleen Wynne, and the Liberals!

Kathleen Wynne’s $317MM Secret Bailout

MAY 29

“Kathleen Wynne approved a $317 million bailout to a private company without the public’s knowledge or approval of the Legislature,” said former Ontario PC MPP Frank Klees. “She needs to explain why this secret deal was never made public.”

This morning, Klees released a series of confidential Cabinet documents outlining Kathleen Wynne’s secret plan to bailout the MaRS office building in downtown Toronto.

“Kathleen Wynne approved a multi-million bailout without the public’s knowledge and in a Cabinet room right before an election,” said Klees “Not only was this hidden from the public, she needs to explain why this secret deal was made after she dissolved the Legislature.”

The McGuinty–Wynne Liberals gave $234MM to MaRS and Alexandria Real Estate, Inc. to build a brand new office tower on prime real estate in downtown Toronto. Now that the private company and MaRS are unable to repay their loans, the government is using tax dollars to secretly bail them out to avoid political embarrassment.

The documents go on to say that failure to act will likely result in MaRS defaulting on its loan, causing foreclosure.

“Kathleen Wynne approved this deal in secret to avoid another public embarrassment for her scandal-plagued government,” said Klees, “Kathleen Wynne will do and say absolutely anything to cling to power, no matter what the cost to Ontario taxpayers,” Klees concluded.

“These documents read like a repeat of the Ornge documents that were sent to me by whistleblowers who could no longer stand the corruption that was going on there,” said Klees, “Millions of taxpayer dollars poured into a federally-incorporated charity, with no government oversight.”

 

The government will justify taking over the MaRS Phase II project by making the currently un-leased office space in the MaRS building home to the Ontario Public Service at prices that will not have to be put to competitive scrutiny.

ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS

http://ontariopc.com/files/treasury-board-of-cabinet-submission-mars-phase-2.pdf

http://ontariopc.com/files/mars-phase-2-briefing-for-secretary-of-cabinet.pdf

http://ontariopc.com/files/backgrounder-mars.pdf

Liberals Desperate to Deflect Blame!  

EXPOSING LIBERAL HALF-TRUTHS —

THE HARRIS HOSPITAL CLOSURE MYTH

Burlington Post — September 2009

The Ontario Liberals have quietly pushed their tall tales, saying the PC government under Mike Harris gutted Ontario’s health-care system.

Their tales go beyond spin and enter the realm of self-serving lie. It is most telling that the Liberals never bring this lie into public debate, they merely use it as part of a whisper campaign, repeating it until it begins to take hold among the general populace.

For example, references to hospital closures that I’ve found suggest that in total the Liberals claim that the PC government closed 39 hospitals in Ontario. They arrive at this number in two ways. Several places in Ontario, including Thunder Bay, Cobourg, Peterborough and Sault Ste. Marie, had two aging hospital facilities. The PCs closed these old, outdated hospitals and built new ones.

The Liberals have lied by omission, in failing to account for the new hospitals that were built in Ontario, some to replace aging buildings and several entirely new hospitals to serve growing populations. By my count we closed 12 hospitals in this manner and opened 17 new ones.

In addition, several hospitals located in close proximity were amalgamated to save on administrative costs. For example, Oakville Trafalgar, Milton District and Georgetown hospitals were amalgamated into Halton Healthcare Services. Liberal Party math says we closed three hospitals. The truth is we simply streamlined the costs — the facilities never closed. We repeated this in major urban centres across Ontario.

The truth is we streamlined costs, opened new facilities to replace aging buildings, significantly grew health-care facilities and increased services in Ontario.

The Liberals conveniently forget the PC government opened new facilities across the province to house 20,000 long-term care patients, people who were taking spaces in acute-care hospitals. In addition, we upgraded existing long-term care facilities for 16,000 Ontarians.

This isn’t only about hospitals. If the PCs gutted health care, how do they explain the expansion of nursing positions? How do they explain our creation of home-care services? How do they explain our substantially-increased funding for cardiac and cancer care and expanded cancer care centres across Ontario? How do they explain 52 new MRIs the PCs brought to Ontario where only 12 existed and the addition of 55 CT scanners? At what point does partisan political spin damage our society? At what point do lies like this get punished by voters?

Ted Chudleigh is the Conservative MPP for Halton.

To read a detailed listing of the exact names and locations of the hospitals, see our previous post here…..

HosptialPage-2

The Liberals have lied about the Conservative’s Platform!!

MATT YOUNG DENOUNCES FEAR MONGERING ABOUT PUBLIC SECTOR JOBS

Photo: Ottawa Citizen

During an all-candidates’ debate hosted by Rogers on May 27, PC candidate for Ottawa South Matt Young refuted misinformation being spread about public service job losses. “We’re not going to touch public safety. Our platform makes it clear. We’re going to hire more nurses and more doctors” he said, adding that a PC government will focus on hiring more front-line workers to improve the services that we all rely on.

“There has been a lot of misinformation out there,” he said, adding that out of Ontario’s 1.1 million public sector employees, 50,000 retire or quit each year, so it’s easier to reduce 100,000 jobs over four years by hiring one person for every two who retire.

“You don’t have to destroy our economy to provide good services,” he told his opponents. The PC plan calls for lower taxes, affordable energy, job creation, better services like healthcare, and a balanced budget. This will ease the burden on households and get Ontario businesses back to the province.

Rogers is re-broadcasting the debate on Monday June 2 at 10:00 a.m., Tuesday June 3 at 8 p.m., and Sunday June 8 at 6 p.m.

Two other debates are scheduled:

– Canterbury All-Candidates Debate: all candidates’ debate at Hillcrest High School this Thursday, May 29th, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m

– Ottawa Muslim Coordinating Council: all-candidates’ debate at the Jim Durrell Recreation Centre on Walkley Road on Monday, June 2nd from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.

Please share this page with your friends and family on Facebook and Twitter. Let’s all work with Matt for a better Ontario.

Ohio Puts Brakes On Green Energy “Targets”! Finally!

 

Posted: 4:04 p.m. Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Ohio House passes green energy freeze

Bill puts a hold on standards adopted five years ago.

By Laura A. Bischoff

Columbus bureau

Columbus —

A controversial bill moving swiftly through the GOP-controlled General Assembly would put a hold on green energy standards and set the stage for dismantling an energy law that took effect just five years ago.

After more than an hour of passionate debate, the Ohio House voted Wednesday 53-38 in favor of Senate Bill 310, which calls for freezing renewable energy benchmarks and energy conservation measures for the next two years. The vote fell largely along partisan lines with Democrats opposing the bill and Republicans supporting it. State Rep. Ross McGregor, R-Springfield, was among a handful of Republicans to vote no.

The Ohio Senate then quickly voted 21-11 in favor of the House changes. State Sen. Bill Beagle, R-Tipp City, opposed the bill and the House changes.

A law passed in 2008 during the Strickland administration requires utilities to get 12.5 percent of their electricity from renewable sources and assist customers in reducing energy usage by 22 percent by 2025. The law proscribes benchmarks to hit between now and 2025.

Senate Bill 310 would freeze those requirements at current levels for two years while a legislative committee studies the issues. It would also eliminate a requirement that utilities obtain half of their renewable energy from in-state sources.

Ted Ford, president and chief executive of Ohio Advanced Energy Economy, said in a written statement: “Ohio is poised to become the first state in the nation to move backwards on renewable energy and energy efficiency standards. This despite the fact that data from public filings of utility companies themselves show that these standards are saving money for customers.”

“The two-year freeze clearly sends a message to investors that this market is uncertain,” said Dayna Baird, lobbyist for the American Wind Association. She added that the mandate that 50 percent of renewable energy come from Ohio has been driving investment in wind farms in the state. Tossing out the mandate before the study group gets underway is “illogical,” she said.

The bill has divided business groups. The Ohio Chamber of Commerce and the NFIB Ohio are behind it but opponents include the Ohio Manufacturers Association, Ohio Consumers’ Counsel, AARP Ohio, Honda of America and environmental groups. Utility companies did not testify on the bill in the House or Senate.

Eric Burkland, president of the Ohio Manufacturer’s Association, issued a letter to House members urging a no vote. “The inevitable outcome…will be higher electricity costs for business and residential customers,” he said.

Proponents of the freeze say adhering to the benchmarks will lead to rate spikes. They also say conditions have changed since the standards were put in place. Natural gas prices have gone down and the state has seen new shale oil and natural gas discoveries.

State Rep. Peter Stautberg, R-Anderson Twp., said the mandates are “simply not achievable or sustainable” and that Ohioans don’t need anyone to tell them that turning off the lights when they leave a room will cut their energy usage.

Opponents, which include environmental groups, clean energy business interests and some manufacturers, say the renewable energy and conservation benchmarks set in the 2008 law have already saved utility customers more than $1 billion on their bills, slashed pollution and avoided the need for costly power plant construction.

State Rep. Mike Foley, D-Cleveland, and other Democrats scolded supporters of the bill, saying that abandoning renewable energy standards is environmentally irresponsible given the evidence of climate change. “This is a legacy vote. It’s a vote that we’ll all be judged on for years to come,” Foley said.

Republicans in the Ohio Senate initially wanted to scrap the renewable energy standards entirely.

Backers of the Buckeye Wind Farm in Champaign County have warned that the move to put the brakes on renewable energy requirements will chill green energy investment in Ohio and make it tougher to sell wind power in Ohio.

Seventy-percent of Ohio’s electricity is generated using coal, 16 percent comes from natural gas and 12 percent is from nuclear generation. Very little is generated from hydroelectric, solar and wind power.


Under current energy law, utilties must:

  • Buy 12.5 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2025
  • Meet benchmarks along the way
  • Help customers reduce energy usage by 22 percent by 2025
  • Get half of their green energy from in-state sources by 2025

Senate Bill 310 would:

  • Freeze the renewable standards requirements at current levels for two years
  • Set up a legislative study committee
  • Eliminate the requirement that half of green energy must come from Ohio sources
  • Allow large industrial customers to opt out of the conservation requirements and self-report efforts made to cut energy use.

The Promise of an abundance, of “Green Jobs”, was just another “Green Lie!”

1) Germany’s Green Jobs Miracle Collapses
Die Welt, 26 May 2014

Daniel Wetzel

Renewable energy was supposed to create tens of thousands of green jobs. Yet despite three-digit Euro billions of subsidies, the number of jobs is falling rapidly. Seven out of ten jobs will only remain as long as the subsidies keep flowing.

Rund 70 Prozent der Beschäftigung im Bereich erneuerbare Energien ist vom EEG abhängig

The subsidisation of renewable energy has not led to a significant, sustainable increase in jobs. According to recent figures from the German Government, the gross employment in renewable energy decreased by around seven per cent to 363,100 in 2013.

Counting the employees in government agencies and academic institution too, renewable energy creates work for about 370,000 people.

This means, however, that only to about 0.86 percent of the nearly 42 million workers, which are employed in Germany, work in the highly subsidized sector of renewable energy. Much of this employment is limited to the maintenance and operation of existing facilities.

Further job cuts expected

In the core of the industry, the production of renewable energy systems, only 230,800 people were employed last year: a drop of 13 percent within one year, which is primarily due to the collapse of the German solar industry.

There is no improvement in sight, according to the recent report by the Federal Government. It says: “Overall, a further decline of employees will probably be observed in the renewable energies sector this and next year.”

15 years after the start of green energy subsidies through the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), the vast majority of jobs from in this sector are still dependent on subsidies.

Hardly any self-supporting jobs in Green energy

According to official figures from the Federal Government, 70% of gross employment was due to the EEG last year. Although this is a slight decrease compared to 2012, seven out of ten jobs in the eco-energy sector are still subsidized by the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG).

Around 137,800 employees work in the wind sector which was the only eco-energy sector, besides geothermal, that increased employment. About 56,000 employees in photovoltaic sector depend on EEG payments.

Investments drop by 20 percent

Subsidies for the generation of green electricity have been paid for almost 15 years and have piled up into a three-digit billion sum, which has to be paid over 20 years by electricity consumers through their electricity bills. This year alone, consumers must subsidize the production of green electricity to the tune of around 20 billion Euros. A lasting effect on the labour market is not obvious.

The report, “Gross employment in renewable energy sources in Germany in 2013″, commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Economy and Energy, was jointly written by the institutes DLR, DIW , STW , GWS and Prognos.  According to the researchers, the cause of the decrease in employment is the declining investments in green energy systems.

The investments in renewable energy sources in Germany fell by a fifth, to 16.09 billion Euros in the past year. Only about half as many solar panels were installed in Germany as the year before. Investment in biomass plants and solar thermal dropped as well.

“Nothing left from the job miracle“

The researchers do not expect that the production of high quality green energy systems will still lead to a job boom in Germany. For this year and the next they expect a further decline in employment instead. Thereafter, low-tech sectors such as “operation and maintenance” as well as the supply of biomass fuels are expected to „stabilise the employment effect”.

„A few years ago the renewable sector was the job miracle in Germany, now nothing is left of all of that,” said the deputy leader of the Greens in the Bundestag, Oliver Krischer.

The Green politician is sceptical about the attempts by the Federal Government to reduce the subsidy dependence of the green energy sector: „The brakes on the expansion of renewables by the previous conservative-liberal government is now fully hitting the job market,” said Krischer: “Thanks to the current EEG reform by the Union and SPD, the innovative and young renewables industry will lose more jobs.”

The bottom line, no jobs remain

The report by the Federal Government explicitly estimates only the „gross employment“ created primarily by green subsidies. The same subsidies, however, have led to rising costs and job losses in many other areas, such as heavy industry and commerce as well as conventional power plant operators.  For a net analysis, the number of jobs that have been prevented or destroyed as a result would have to be deducted from the gross number of green jobs.

Official figures for the net effect of renewables on employment in Germany were originally supposed to be presented in July, according to the Federal Economics Ministry. However, the presentation has now been delayed until the autumn.
Researchers such as the president of the Munich-based IFO institute, Hans-Werner Sinn, believe that the net effect of subsidies for renewable energy on the labour market is equal to zero:

“Whoever claims that net jobs have been created must prove that the capital intensity of production in the new sectors is smaller than in the old ones. There are no indications for that. ”

“There is no positive net effect on employment by the EEG,” said Sinn: “Through subsidies for inefficient technologies not a single new job has been created, but wealth has been destroyed. “

Translation Philip Mueller





2) Reminder: Gordon Hughes: The Myth of Green Jobs
Global Warming Policy Foundation, September 2011

“Claims by politicians and lobbyists that green energy policies will create a few thousand jobs are not supported by the evidence. In terms of the labour market, the gains for a small number of actual or potential employees in businesses specialising in renewable energy has to be weighed against the dismal prospects for a much larger group of workers producing tradable goods in the rest of the manufacturing sector,” said Professor Gordon Hughes.

Full GWPF report: The Myth of Green Jobs

 



  

The Lying Liberals….They have Got to Go!


Exposing Liberal half-truths

Hospital closure myths

The Ontario Liberals have quietly pushed their tall tales, saying the PC government under Mike Harris gutted Ontario’s health-care system.

Their tales go beyond spin and enter the realm of self-serving lie. It is most telling that the Liberals never bring this lie into public debate, they merely use it as part of a whisper campaign, repeating it until it begins to take hold among the general populace.

For example, references to hospital closures that I’ve found suggest that in total the Liberals claim that the PC government closed 39 hospitals in Ontario. They arrive at this number in two ways. Several places in Ontario, including Thunder Bay, Cobourg, Peterborough and Sault Ste. Marie, had two aging hospital facilities. The PCs closed these old, outdated hospitals and built new ones.

The Liberals have lied by omission, in failing to account for the new hospitals that were built in Ontario, some to replace aging buildings and several entirely new hospitals to serve growing populations. By my count we closed 12 hospitals in this manner and opened 17 new ones.

In addition, several hospitals located in close proximity were amalgamated to save on administrative costs. For example, Oakville Trafalgar, Milton District and Georgetown hospitals were amalgamated into Halton Healthcare Services. Liberal Party math says we closed three hospitals. The truth is we simply streamlined the costs — the facilities never closed. We repeated this in major urban centres across Ontario.

The truth is we streamlined costs, opened new facilities to replace aging buildings, significantly grew health-care facilities and increased services in Ontario.

The Liberals conveniently forget the PC government opened new facilities across the province to house 20,000 long-term care patients, people who were taking spaces in acute-care hospitals. In addition, we upgraded existing long-term care facilities for 16,000 Ontarians.

This isn’t only about hospitals. If the PCs gutted health care, how do they explain the expansion of nursing positions? How do they explain our creation of home-care services? How do they explain our substantially-increased funding for cardiac and cancer care and expanded cancer care centres across Ontario? How do they explain 52 new MRIs the PCs brought to Ontario where only 12 existed and the addition of 55 CT scanners? At what point does partisan political spin damage our society? At what point do lies like this get punished by voters?

Ted Chudleigh is the Conservative MPP for Halton.

The Documentary, “DOWNWIND”, Premiers – JUNE 4, AT 8 PM. & 11 pm… Don’t Miss It!

TELEVISION PREMIERE OF DOWN WIND ON

SUN NEWS NETWORK — JUNE 4TH AT 8 AND 11 P.M.

Sun News Network will air the television premiere of the documentary film DOWN WIND on Wednesday, June 4 at 8:00 p.m. ET and 11:00 p.m. ET.

DOWN WIND is a tell-all film that deals head on with how Ontario politicians rammed through green energy laws and dashed forward with the installation of thousands of wind turbines across the province’s farmland and countryside.

The film exposes how the lights of liberty went out for Ontario citizens deeply opposed to wind turbine projects. It tells the stories of communities torn apart, and the rural warriors now fighting for their rights, health and happiness.

Sun News Network host and contributor Rebecca Thompson joined Surge Media Productions to create this passionate, yet alarming story of a flawed attempt to green Ontario’s electricity grid.

DOWN WIND debunks the Ontario Liberal government’s propaganda that wind power is economically and environmentally sound, by pointing to jaw-dropping wind subsidies and a fossil fuel back-up system.

The film tells the ugly truth about lucrative big wind power contracts, skyrocketing electricity prices, and the political connections behind it all.

It uncovers the skeptical sales pitch that wind turbines are good for the air and won’t impact health. And it provides a glimmer of hope that this nightmare can be overcome with fair-minded solutions.

Passionate stories, eye-dropping footage and never-before seen interviews are showcased in this highly anticipated Sun News Network film backed financially by hundreds of concerned citizens.

A DVD version, including bonus features, will be available for purchase atwww.DownWindMovie.com following the television release.

Sun News Network is available on cable and satellite across Canada; check your local listings to find it on your dial.

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