Greenhouses cheer, school boards jeer

Scrapping cap-and-trade helps growers but means less money for classrooms

Windsor-Essex school boards will lose a few million dollars in funding, but Ontario’s greenhouse industry should benefit from Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s move to make good on his campaign promise to scrap the province’s cap-and-trade system.

“Ontario’s greenhouse farmers support the intent of the Ontario government to reduce the cost of doing business in the province,” Justine Taylor, the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers’ science and government relations manager, said Tuesday.

“Cap and trade has had a significant impact on our members and in general has decreased our competitiveness in a global market. It is our hope that any future greenhouse gas reduction efforts will recognize the importance of growing food in Ontario and put in place programs that both reward innovation and support economic development.”

Last year, some Leamington and Kingsville greenhouse vegetable growers and the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce said the Liberal’s cap-and-trade program could kill the greenhouse industry. The problem was the program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions meant most growers were paying extra for natural gas, and being energy efficient didn’t benefit them in the program. Ending cap and trade means the new Tory government is cutting $100 million approved by the previous Liberal government for school repairs. According to The Canadian Press, school boards were notified on July 3 that the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund would be eliminated and school boards were advised to immediately stop spending the cash that had been allocated in April. The Greater Essex County District School Board was to receive $2.5 million, which is a small part of the almost $45 million in school renovations being done this year with provincial funding, said Giuliana Hinchliffe, the board’s coordinator of engineering.

“It is disappointing because the energy conservation is such a great tool for saving board money to be able to redirect moneys to the classrooms,” she said.

The public board hasn’t determined what renovations will be cut, she said.

The funding helped pay for energy-efficient items such as LED lighting and heating upgrades. Hinchliffe said some LED lighting projects will be cut but others, because they had already started, will continue and the board will have to put something else on the back burner. The entire $2.5 million shortfall may not translate into project cuts because the board put contingency funds into the renovations at 50 schools this year. The Catholic board had been allocated $839,000, but chairwoman Barbara Holland said she’s waiting for more details.

“We’re assessing how or if this may affect us at all and very much taking a wait-and-see approach,” Holland said.

Parents need not be alarmed since it’s a very small part of the budget, Holland said. This year, the board budgeted $15.9 million for capital projects covered by provincial funding.

Ford campaigned on a promise to eliminate cap and trade and revoked the regulation laying out the program as one of his first acts after he was officially sworn in on June 29.

Ford’s spokesman Simon Jefferies said the Tories received a strong mandate from voters to end cap and trade.

“To ensure an orderly winddown of programs funded through the cap-and-trade carbon tax, the government will honour arrangements where contracts have already been signed and orders have already been made,” he said in a statement this week.

Itis disappointing because the energy conservation is such a great tool for saving board money …