Share on socials
For immediate release
May 27
(Guelph): Mike Schreiner, leader of the Green Party of Ontario, called on the other parties to stop talking out of both sides of their mouths about rising energy costs.
“If a government told you that they were giving you a 10% discount on a pack of cigarettes,” said Schreiner, “you might get the idea they were encouraging you to smoke, right?”
Schreiner’s comparison draws attention to the hypocrisy of the Liberal and NDP policies about electricity costs. The Liberals plan to continue to spend $1.1 billion a year to pay 10% of every homeowner’s electricity bill. The NDP would raise the cost by adding another $100 per customer per year, and removing the HST.
“Energy prices are going up. Do we really want to waste money we could use to reduce poverty, improve education, or end gridlock on promoting wasteful consumption?” said Schreiner. “The best way to attack energy prices is to help people use less energy. It seems so obvious to me!”
The Green Party also criticized the Conservatives’ promise to cancel the Green Energy Act and all support for alternative energy generation. “In Germany people’s houses have been turned into profit centres by high efficiency design, solar panels on household roofs, and a rewarding feed-in tariff program,” said Schreiner. “As a result, on most days nearly 75% of German power comes from renewables, and householders make money at the same time.”
While other parties use flashy gimmicks, expensive giveaways, and voodoo economics to headline their energy policy, the Green Party has a simple approach to support homeowners, innovative businesses, jobs, and energy conservation.
The Green Party will invest $1 billion a year for four years in your home for home energy retrofits. Over four years, 1 million homes can each receive $4000 credits towards the purchase of insulation, new windows and doors, LED lights and energy star rated appliances. Greens will also make low-cost loans available through utilities.
The Green Party plans to pay for the program with savings from cancelling the refurbishment of the Darlington nuclear plants, estimated by the government at $10 billion. Replacement hydro can be purchased for $6 billion, leaving $4 billion for support of home retrofits.
Mike Schreiner and the Green Party are bringing honesty, integrity, and good public policy to Queen’s Park.
-30-
Media contact: Candice Lepage
519.362.9472
candicelepage@gpo.ca