“The inextricable link between electricity prices and economic performance requires us to review possible avenues to reducing long term costs to electricity consumers.”
- page 328, the Drummond Report

WATERLOO: Ontario can once again be a place that lead’s Canada in job creation and economic growth, and affordable energy is at the heart of achieving this, Ontario PC Energy Critic Vic Fedeli said today.

Fedeli made the comments during a tour of Valley Blades, a leading manufacturer of snow plow blades. In spite of Valley Blades success, Ontario’s once-thriving manufacturing sector has been devastated as a result of the McGuinty Liberals’ failed green energy polices. As a result of the Liberals’ misplaced priorities, the province has lost 300,000 manufacturing jobs while adding 300,000 bureaucratic government jobs.

“Ontario was once one of the lowest-cost jurisdictions for energy anywhere in North America and today we’re among the highest,” Fedeli said. “Skyrocketing energy rates are forcing manufacturers to move elsewhere or shut down operations entirely.

“Tim Hudak and the Ontario PC team believe we need a new direction to create private-sector jobs – and affordable energy is a crucial component of this,” Fedeli added.

Affordable energy has been a staple of Tim Hudak’s integrated and comprehensive plan to get Ontario working again. In March, Hudak introduced the Affordable Energy and Restoration of Local Decision Making Act, 2012. The bill would have eliminated the FIT and microFIT programs which pay costly subsidies to developers through 20-year contracts. It would have also restored local decision-making for the placement of large wind and solar projects. The McGuinty Liberals voted against it.

Ontario PC Kitchener-Waterloo candidate Tracey Weiler added that “we need to treat affordable energy as a cornerstone of economic policy so Ontario can regain its reputation as the first choice for businesses to open up in, expand service offerings and create jobs – right here in communities like Kitchener-Waterloo.”

In May, Hudak and Fedeli released the first Ontario PC Paths to Prosperity white paper, focusing on affordable energy. Other PC ideas include: tax relief, changing the attitude of government by welcoming job creators – not deterring them with regulations and red tape – and a bold revision of this province’s 1940s era labour laws that hamper Ontario’s ability to compete, as proposed in their Paths to Prosperity Flexible Labour Markets white paper.

Fedeli concluded “Tim Hudak, Tracey Weiler and the Ontario PC team are focused on the long-term sustainability of our economy – starting with a real jobs plan that includes getting energy rates under control.

“We have to take urgent action and implement these ideas to give hope to this province’s nearly half a million unemployed men and women.”