Ontario’s Bait & Switch Climate Action Plan, Part II

After posting my first piece on Ontario’s bait and switch ‘Climate Change’ action plan, I decided to do a little more research and share a few other ideas about why I’m concerned about this plan.

First, buried in all of the press releases and glowing images of ‘Kathleen Mother Earth Wynne’ are two taxes and price increases:

• A 4.3 cent per liter increase in the price of gas at the station
• Natural gas bills to increase an ‘average’ of $5 per month

The net effect is about $13 per month per Ontario citizen, or about $600 per year for a family of 4.  Double that if there’s two cars and a slightly larger home.

Next, let’s look at what’s on the table:

• 28 key measures
• A massive gamble on electric cars, with GM already announcing new production as a thank you to the Wynne government (timing is everything, right?)
• Rebates up to $14,000 per electric vehicle
• $1,000 available to install electrical charges at owners’ homes
• A ‘cash for clunkers’ car replacement program
• Changes to the building code to include a requirement that all new homes have a charger installed and stations at new commercial buildings
• Planting of 50 million trees
• Cycling infrastructure
• Incentives to replace wood-burning stoves
• $600 million for home retrofits, with the bulk going to Nest and EcoBee monitoring systems
• Mandatory energy audits for anyone selling their house (usually a minimum $500 expense)

Most of these programs either relate to cost to consumers for implementation or direct or indirect subsidies to very large companies that must have been lobbying for months (maybe years) to get these programs in place.

The focus on cars is commendable, but there’s very little about bikes, pedestrians and making the roads safer for both.  How many new crosswalks will be installed?  Just how many sidewalks and bike lanes will be required as part of new developments?

What are we doing to improve mixed-use communities so that people don’t need to hop in a car to get their groceries?

Finally, let’s consider what’s missing.

“This is a plan with a big basket of carrots and no sticks,” Environment Minister and Climate Change Glen Murray vowed last week.

We need sticks.

We need to put an end to sprawl.  It’s killing every region, destroying farmland and creating more need for … cars.  The estimated to Americans of sprawl is about $100 billion per year.

However, if it has to be done, let’s do it right.

I’ve been preaching the ideal community for some time and a group in Holland seems to have finally hit the mark, with a new development built by ReGen Villages that is completely sustainable, off-grid and independent.

The municipal code MUST be changes to require any new development to follow a similar mandate.  If we can’t stop sprawl, we can at least stop stupid sprawl and add value to these homes.

For those media and construction folks who bitch about the cost, consider the impact of not paying gas, hydro, water or other utilities over the life of a house.

It’s in the millions.

And when suburbs are built, let’s stop chewing up the world’s best farmland so that everyone can have their BBQ and pool.

We could also try to put an end to the enormity of houses, by introducing a ‘square footage’ tax that would add a levy or penalty to any home that’s bigger than, say, 2,500 square feet.  Anyone buying something less than 1,000 square feet might get a ‘bonus’.

Such a measure would increase intensification (ie. more downtown buildings and higher density of people per square feet) and increase the cost of mega-homes that are becoming so prevalent in areas surrounding our cities.

Here are some other things that are missing:

• A zero emissions vehicle (ZEV) mandate, similar to that introduced in the US
• Other mandatory retrofit requirements for homes to bring them up to code or to ensure that they’re using
• Elimination of plastic and other unnatural packaging products
• Investment in green tech energy initiatives
• Creation of an investment fund of sorts that helps consumers and individuals create new local and small energy production facilities
• Very little address public transit, especially the construction of LRTs instead of buses, smaller buses and electric or autonomous buses.
• Mandatory parking metres in mega-malls, with funds going to reduce electricity bills or a parking lot ‘levy’ that will force builders to construct smaller multi-level garages instead of hundreds of acres of white and yellow car nurseries while we shop away.

The list goes on.

Folks, this is an $8.3 billion giveaway that will benefit a number of large companies but that will have a small, unimportant impact on our day-to-day lives and our ‘zeitgeist’ of thought concerning climate change in the province.

Sure, this is a start, but as the Romans used to say ‘Qui bono‘ … who benefits?

It sure as hell won’t be me.