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The Ontario government suddenly cancelled hundreds of millions of dollars worth of programs meant to fight climate change on Tuesday, without anybody apparently being responsible for it.
Rebate programs for home energy-efficiency improvements such as new windows, smart thermostats and better insulation were the red flag, as the clearinghouse website for them was taken down and replaced by a notice saying they were closed. A subsidy program for new solar panels won’t launch. A $300-million fund for business-led experiments in reducing energy use went splat.
The abruptness of the cancellation is sending renovations higgledy-piggledy. The window-replacement rebate, worth as much as $5,000 if you’re doing a major upgrade, has been particularly popular. Since many windows are custom-made and take a lot of lead time to plan, manufacture and install, some property owners who’ve already started projects will very likely miss the new end-of-summer deadline for getting their final paperwork submitted.
A minister would ordinarily have to answer for the consequences of this decision because a minister would ordinarily have to order such a change.
Ontario doesn’t have a minister with the authority to do something like this just now. Given all of Wednesday, the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change couldn’t say on whose authority the decision was made. Near the end of the day, its spokesman kicked the question over to premier-designate Doug Ford’s staff, who didn’t immediately respond.
Of course, scrapping environment programs such as the energy-efficiency rebates was on the Progressive Conservatives’ list of campaign promises. Ford pledged to kill Ontario’s cap-and-trade system for reducing carbon-dioxide emissions, and likewise pledged to kill the programs that money from the cap-and-trade auctions paid for. It was the only specific spending cut Ford promised and it was substantial: $1.9 billion in all, with the home-energy rebates only a part. Since the evening of June 7, we’ve been pretty sure the rebates and everything else paid for with the “Green Ontario Fund” were done for.
(Conservation and efficiency are the lowest-hanging fruit when it comes to combating climate change, reducing pollution and cutting costs at the same time, but maybe rebate programs promoting them aren’t the best way to reduce energy consumption. There’s actually little evidence for or against the effectiveness of these programs — what they cost and how much effect they have on energy use and greenhouse-gas emissions varies a whole lot from place to place, depending on energy sources and the local climate and how existing buildings were constructed.)
Kathleen Wynne addresses the media in 2015 during an announcement that outlined a cap-and-trade deal with Quebec aimed at curbing green house emissions.
Regardless, living up to campaign promises is important. Ontarians voted for an end to the rebates and other green programs. The Tories should do what they said they would do.
But typically a new premier and cabinet take oaths before they start exercising power. Ford isn’t the premier yet. Until next week, in fact, Kathleen Wynne is still premier and her ministers are still Ontario’s executive authorities. They’re not really supposed to do anything but sign paperwork and respond to flat-out emergencies, but they’re the holders of ministerial authority, not Ford and cabinet ministers he hasn’t even named.
They’re just caretakers and they have been since the election was called in May, as the head of Ontario’s civil service wrote in multiple public letters to the bureaucracy over the spring, explaining how a transition functions.
“The essential element of the caretaker practice is that only routine, non-controversial, or urgent business is conducted,” Steve Orsini told the provincial government’s workers. “Except for the normal implementation of routine government services and programs, any activity or action that would not reasonably be perceived as routine, non-controversial, urgent or time sensitive, should be suspended once the writ is issued.”
Stopping a program the provincial cabinet approved and whose budget is provided by duly enacted legislation is not routine; stopping it in a way that leaves homeowners, manufacturers and installers holding the bags certainly isn’t routine.
Orsini’s repeated the warning to civil servants several times: Your job is to keep the lights on, prepare to brief new ministers, and make sure nothing catches fire. If something does catch fire, seek approval before putting it out.
During the election campaign, in mid-May, Ontario went through with its latest auction of emissions permits and raised $472 million. That was treated as routine government business, and rightly so — despite the election, Ontario was an established participant in the carbon market with Quebec and California, the notices for the auction had been issued and everyone involved knew what to expect. It brought in a lot of money that has a specific purpose for which it suddenly won’t be used.
Transitions always come with glitches, but this is a weird one. People who aren’t in power shouldn’t give orders and civil servants shouldn’t do things they don’t have the authority for.
dreevely@postmedia.com
twitter.com/davidreevely
查看原文...
Rebate programs for home energy-efficiency improvements such as new windows, smart thermostats and better insulation were the red flag, as the clearinghouse website for them was taken down and replaced by a notice saying they were closed. A subsidy program for new solar panels won’t launch. A $300-million fund for business-led experiments in reducing energy use went splat.
The abruptness of the cancellation is sending renovations higgledy-piggledy. The window-replacement rebate, worth as much as $5,000 if you’re doing a major upgrade, has been particularly popular. Since many windows are custom-made and take a lot of lead time to plan, manufacture and install, some property owners who’ve already started projects will very likely miss the new end-of-summer deadline for getting their final paperwork submitted.
A minister would ordinarily have to answer for the consequences of this decision because a minister would ordinarily have to order such a change.
Ontario doesn’t have a minister with the authority to do something like this just now. Given all of Wednesday, the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change couldn’t say on whose authority the decision was made. Near the end of the day, its spokesman kicked the question over to premier-designate Doug Ford’s staff, who didn’t immediately respond.
Of course, scrapping environment programs such as the energy-efficiency rebates was on the Progressive Conservatives’ list of campaign promises. Ford pledged to kill Ontario’s cap-and-trade system for reducing carbon-dioxide emissions, and likewise pledged to kill the programs that money from the cap-and-trade auctions paid for. It was the only specific spending cut Ford promised and it was substantial: $1.9 billion in all, with the home-energy rebates only a part. Since the evening of June 7, we’ve been pretty sure the rebates and everything else paid for with the “Green Ontario Fund” were done for.
(Conservation and efficiency are the lowest-hanging fruit when it comes to combating climate change, reducing pollution and cutting costs at the same time, but maybe rebate programs promoting them aren’t the best way to reduce energy consumption. There’s actually little evidence for or against the effectiveness of these programs — what they cost and how much effect they have on energy use and greenhouse-gas emissions varies a whole lot from place to place, depending on energy sources and the local climate and how existing buildings were constructed.)
Kathleen Wynne addresses the media in 2015 during an announcement that outlined a cap-and-trade deal with Quebec aimed at curbing green house emissions.
Regardless, living up to campaign promises is important. Ontarians voted for an end to the rebates and other green programs. The Tories should do what they said they would do.
But typically a new premier and cabinet take oaths before they start exercising power. Ford isn’t the premier yet. Until next week, in fact, Kathleen Wynne is still premier and her ministers are still Ontario’s executive authorities. They’re not really supposed to do anything but sign paperwork and respond to flat-out emergencies, but they’re the holders of ministerial authority, not Ford and cabinet ministers he hasn’t even named.
They’re just caretakers and they have been since the election was called in May, as the head of Ontario’s civil service wrote in multiple public letters to the bureaucracy over the spring, explaining how a transition functions.
“The essential element of the caretaker practice is that only routine, non-controversial, or urgent business is conducted,” Steve Orsini told the provincial government’s workers. “Except for the normal implementation of routine government services and programs, any activity or action that would not reasonably be perceived as routine, non-controversial, urgent or time sensitive, should be suspended once the writ is issued.”
Stopping a program the provincial cabinet approved and whose budget is provided by duly enacted legislation is not routine; stopping it in a way that leaves homeowners, manufacturers and installers holding the bags certainly isn’t routine.
Orsini’s repeated the warning to civil servants several times: Your job is to keep the lights on, prepare to brief new ministers, and make sure nothing catches fire. If something does catch fire, seek approval before putting it out.
During the election campaign, in mid-May, Ontario went through with its latest auction of emissions permits and raised $472 million. That was treated as routine government business, and rightly so — despite the election, Ontario was an established participant in the carbon market with Quebec and California, the notices for the auction had been issued and everyone involved knew what to expect. It brought in a lot of money that has a specific purpose for which it suddenly won’t be used.
Transitions always come with glitches, but this is a weird one. People who aren’t in power shouldn’t give orders and civil servants shouldn’t do things they don’t have the authority for.
dreevely@postmedia.com
twitter.com/davidreevely
查看原文...
