Coal power in Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia accounts for 10% of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions. 10% seems like a massive amount, but when considering this is 10% of 1.6%, Canada’s contribution to global greenhouse gases, this amounts to 0.16% savings to the world as a whole. In Alberta our NDP government has taken the approach to phase out coal entirely and to replace it with lower emitting sources, while Saskatchewan is opting for more progressive carbon capture and storage technologies. I argue it is ‘progressive’ as the world needs these technologies to cure the ever increasing CO2 problem, perceived or not, scientifically proven or not! It is a fallacy to believe the rest of the world is actively working toward phasing out coal-fired electricity any time soon, let alone 2030, even in favour of renewables and cleaner burning natural gas. Particularly in third world countries who are starved for electricity which we in developed western countries have taken for granted for decades!

In business I was taught to punish the guilty rather than punish the masses when something goes wrong. In Canada we seem to think we can solve this global issue by pushing all Canadians, and the businesses they rely upon for jobs, into clean energy poverty. Our politicians always counter this argument by saying there will be trillions in new global clean energy investment in the future. So in reality we are banking the wellbeing of every Canadian today, to position our country for potential investment that may or may not ever hit our shores at some unknown time in the future.

It’s like robbing Paul to pay Peter. Kathleen Wynne, the 25th Premier of Ontario is the latest politician to reluctantly admit she took her eye off the ball in her government’s quest to be part of the clean energy world haven. Why the sudden revelation? Well her electorate, and past ardent supporters, are starting to revolt when they see what is happening with our U.S. neighbors, and when for the first time ever, people are having to decide

whether to pay their electricity bill or to buy food and pay their rent. They simply can’t afford all three! It now costs more in Ontario to cool a 2,500 sq. ft. house in the middle of the summer in Toronto than it does to cool 2 comparable houses in the scorching heat of Phoenix in the Arizona Sonoran Desert. Total mismanagement by Wynne’s Liberal government, all to solve a social justice clean energy problem that did not exist in her province.