Ontario Politics
So I'm pissed off at the McGuinty Government, and not just because I'm a frothing pro-war Libertarian Conservative who wants to high five harper every five minutes, but more because I'm an ethnocentric left-coaster.
Here's the breakdown: There are a bunch of clowns posing as an advocacy group setting environmental policy. Their results so far this summer have been a eco-fee system that Canadian Tire decided after two days not to follow (contrary to law) because the system had no standards, in that one brand of product had a higher fee than another brand that had the same product, but for a different application.
Now they've decided to go
subsidize lower-income home renovation and wind-power generation by jacking up electricity bills. This annoys me to no end, because I cannot trust those clowns to pull it off in a competent fashion as it is still inaccessible to those who could benefit the most, and it certainly would not have nearly as strong as an effect as subsidizing fiberglass insulation and double-pane windows for old homes and apartments as this program with its fee would also require some green people to run it. And let me tell you, every advocacy position my incomplete GIS education so far has opened my up to so far is in the six figure range for being a friendly face to bullshit. If anyone would like to call me on that, I have pdf's of the positions I've found so far handy.
Sigh.
Meanwhile despite all this environmental protection and carbon conservation rhetoric that has not produced any tangable results (PS: BC is now the only province whose carbon output from vehicles fell 0.1%! The rest rose), I go to the beach at the base of a cliff near 24-sussex drive about a click north, and what do I see?
pop cans, oil cans and milk bottles. What the fuck Ontario! That's the upper-crust part of Ottawa! The Governor General and the PM live there and you can't even keep those beaches clean.. Didn't you know that we (BC) already solved this problem?
Two years ago, if I walked through the beaches in Victoria, I might have found a couple temporary homeless shelters, or someone asking for change but in no way would I have to navigate through a beach that was layers upon layers of sedimentary pop cans! And right near the PM's home at that!
Do you know what solved this issue? Privatization! That's right. Throw a deposit like on beer cans on anything that can be recycled and let the private sector do the rest (after helping the startups with some temporary grants for five years). The deposit will create the clientelle seeking compensation for fundraisers or their next dose of heroin, and the profit comes from selling this stuff in mass to the next area of the supply chain! You've heard of polar fleece, right?
Yes, you might have bums rummaging through your recycling, but deal with it. They'll also rummage everywhere else, ensuring that the bottles don't hit the landfill or beaches. Studies at UBC have found people who salvage as a career do exist, and that they
add value to a society. They were also able to put a dollar value beside it, but I forget how much at this moment.
Yes Ontario, I know that you're afraid of corporations, or at least that's what I get the feeling of considering how much the manufacturing and housing sectors have
shriveled in the year and two months I have been here. But for the love of Bob This creates jobs and while the PR might cost tax dollars at the start, or the grants to recycling start-ups it will pay for itself in the long run in terms of space saved in the landfills and the tax reaped from those working in the companies at the receiving, admin and processing sides! There are also political benefits.
People may see nothing but bad press by the socialists and the New Dems for Campbell and Alberta's Premier, but without them
successful companies like these would not exist and I would be wading in pop cans on those beaches as well...
