The United States Department of Commerce has launched antidumping and countervailing duty investigations of utility scale wind tower imports from Canada and three other countries. The investigations will determine if the towers are being dumped in the U.S. and are receiving unfair subsidies.

Taxes & Subsidies Canada USA

Napper said the assessed value of wind turbines is out of whack when compared to other industrial properties, such as natural gas and oil pipelines, or agricultural grain elevators. “Most of that money is going out of the country, and I just think it would be a win-win situation for every municipality to have those tax dollars,” Napper said.

Taxes & Subsidies Ontario

Ontario lost between $732 million and $1.25 billion over the past two years selling surplus clean electricity outside the province, an analysis by the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE) estimates. That’s the difference between what Ontario agreed to pay to produce nuclear, water, wind and solar power, and the bargain basement price it sold it for on the international market.

Impact on Economy Taxes & Subsidies Ontario

In yet another sign of the crisis caused for many in the province by soaring electricity rates, the Ontario Association of Food Banks says the fallout is putting the squeeze on the basic needs of many. “If people have to choose between keeping the lights on and going hungry, they go without food,” Carolyn Stewart, executive director of the association, said ahead of Monday’s release of the group’s Hunger Report 2016. Soaring hydro costs have become an Achilles heel for the Liberal government, which took a costly plunge into green energy in 2009. 

Impact on Economy Taxes & Subsidies Ontario

The poll suggests the issues Ms. Wynne has spent most of her time on – building transit and fighting climate change – are low on voters’ priority lists. Infrastructure investments was the top issue for just 4.8 per cent of respondents, and the environment clocked in at 4 per cent.

Impact on Economy Taxes & Subsidies Ontario

Did the wind industry ever tell you that their turbines are of no practical use for most of the time? Do you now understand the meaning of the capacity factor? Repeat: it is time to put the welfare of Ontarians ahead of your ego­ and stop this waste now. We all make mistakes, and the smart people learn from them. It is now clear to all critical and realistic thinkers that wind and solar will never replace or even moderately supplement nuclear and other reliable sources of the electrical energy in Ontario.

Impact on Economy Taxes & Subsidies Ontario

In fact, wind and solar “farms” have become troublesome “gridmonsters”. They are uncontrollable, cruel and unreasonably costly. Gridmonsters have a licence not only to kill, but also to bill. Enabled by Ontario’s Green Energy Act , they drive up electricity prices while ravaging rural neighbourhoods and wildlife.

Taxes & Subsidies Energy Policy Ontario

There are signs of green economic turmoil everywhere

Taxes & Subsidies Energy Policy Europe Canada USA

“The high incidence of energy poverty in Canada, particularly when gasoline expenditures are included, should be of central concern when policies regarding energy are devised. Policies that raise prices could exacerbate problems faced by families who are in energy poverty, or those on the cusp of energy poverty.”

Impact on Economy Taxes & Subsidies Canada

More than six years after the turbines on Wolfe Island became operational, Frontenac Islands Township council was surprised in December when it received a bill for policing from the Leeds County OPP. “They charge us the same in this new policing formula for a wind tower as they do for a house,” Mayor Denis Doyle said. “It costs us a lot of money.”

Taxes & Subsidies Ontario

“Over the last decade, this power system planning process has essentially broken down, and Ontario’s energy system has not had a technical plan in place for the last 10 years. Operating outside the checks and balances of the legislated planning process, the Ministry of Energy has made a number of decisions about power generation that have resulted in significant costs to electricity consumers.”

Taxes & Subsidies Canada Ontario

“Over the last decade, this power system planning process has essentially broken down, and Ontario’s energy system has not had a technical plan in place for the last 10 years. Operating outside the checks and balances of the legislated planning process, the Ministry of Energy has made a number of decisions about power generation that have resulted in significant costs to electricity consumers.”

Taxes & Subsidies Ontario Canada

At a committee of the whole meeting in Picton Thursday afternoon, council opted to wait for a ruling from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to determine if donations to help offset the legal costs of a pair of appeals qualify for official income tax receipts. The decision came after hearing from a pair of local residents the municipality could be liable for the taxes from the donations and also risk its ability to receive donations.

Taxes & Subsidies Ontario

"This is the right time to bring COMFIT to a close; it has achieved its objectives," says Michel Samson, energy minister. "We are now at a point where the program could begin to have a negative impact on power rates."

Taxes & Subsidies Nova Scotia

Ontario’s green energy transformation – initiated a decade ago under then-Premier Dalton McGuinty – is now hitting consumers. The Nov 1 increase for households is the next twist of that screw. As Ontario consumers know all too well, the province has gone from having affordable electricity to having some of the highest and fastest-increasing rates in Canada.

Taxes & Subsidies Energy Policy Canada

A spokeswoman for the Nor’Wester Mountain Escarpment Protection Committee says she’s ecstatic that Horizon Wind Inc.’s planned turbine farm in Thunder Bay might be dead in the water. ...It's not necessarily the end of the project, she cautioned. "It wouldn't come as a surprise if there is an appeal," she said, adding she thinks treaty rights must come first and be protected and will ultimately prevail.

Taxes & Subsidies Ontario

Europe’s renewable energy investors are facing a harsh reality – that the promises from politicians can be taken away at any moment. Canada’s renewable energy investors may soon face that same reality. ...Governments across Europe, regretting the over-generous deals doled out to the renewable energy sector, have begun reneging on them. To slow ruinous power bills hikes, governments are unilaterally rewriting contracts and clawing back unseemly profits.

Taxes & Subsidies UK Canada

"...the Green Energy Act and this artificially low tax base assessment have jeopardized the ability of a municipality to raise property taxes to conduct its business. The annual allocation of Ontario funding to each municipality is decreasing. A fairer tax revenue generation process is needed to offset this shortfall.”

Taxes & Subsidies Ontario

Indications are mounting, however, that green capitalism will not be able to meet all expectations. In courts around the country, complaints are mounting from wind park investors who haven't received a dividend disbursement in years or whose parks went belly up. Consumer protection activists are complaining that many projects are poorly structured and lack transparency.

Impact on Economy Taxes & Subsidies New Brunswick

The Spanish government, like most European governments, is staggering under a mountain of public debt after having used borrowed money for decades to pay for massive social benefits. Spain's green energy subsidies were among the most generous in Europe - about $5.75 billion annually in a country of 47 million people.

Taxes & Subsidies Canada