June 2, 2011
Letters, Ontario

'Wind welfare' decried

www.stmarys.com 2 June 2011

The Ontario Trillium Foundation is a provincial government agency that was formed to provide grants to the voluntary sector through investments in community-based initiatives. Unfortunately, the current Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty is using the Trillium Foundation as a slush fund to promote its own partisan politics.
Millions of dollars in grants have been given to pro-wind energy groups that are now running advertisements in newspapers across the province, including our local papers. Since issues such as the Green Energy Act, Feed-In-Tariff program, and the Samsung deal will be contentious issues in the upcoming provincial election, these ads are thinly veiled partisan political ads paid for by our tax dollars.
Since 2003, when Dalton McGuinty came to power groups – like the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association (OSEA), Environmental Defense, Pembina Foundation, Toronto Environmental Alliance, Toronto Renewable Energy Cooperative and other professional pro-industrial wind organizations who have been aggressively defending Ontario’s Green Energy scheme and attacking opposition parties – we have seen nearly $3.3 million of our dollars funneled to them by this government.
It is time to tell the Trillium Foundation to return to its mandate of “building healthy and vibrant communities throughout Ontario by strengthening the capacity of the voluntary sector, through investments in community-based initiatives.”
Ontarians are sick and tired of seeing our tax dollars wasted by our government.
Wind welfare payments from Trillium since 2003 include: OSEA: $902,800; Toronto Environmental Alliance (OSEA member): $167,000; Toronto Renewable Energy Cooperative: $401,500; Environmental Defense and partners: $1,029,500; Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment: $268,500; Pembina Foundation: $119,900; other pro-wind campaigners: $408,700..
It’s time to end “wind welfare” in the Province of Ontario! It is also time to hold our politicians accountable for their actions and to clean house in Queens Park.
The alternative is to install a pig’s trough to make it easier for our Liberal Government to dispense our tax dollars to McGuinty’s corporate welfare buddies.
Sincerely,
Mike Sapiro
Huron-Kinloss


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/06/02/wind-welfare-decried/