Stop McGuinty’s Insulation Registry
I call McGuinty’s home energy audit, the "Insulation registry" because it has all the hallmarks of that disastrous, money eating farce, the gun registry. It is showmanship rather than policy. It is motivated by fear of doing the right thing, rather than policy conviction. It will suck useful tax money and bury it in the corridors of a useless bureaucracy while accomplishing nothing of value. And, once put in place, it will be hell trying to remove it, no matter how much harm it does.
At the receiving end are homeowners, who are already in a terrible bind. The value of homes is declining, and many homeowners are already selling at the wrong time because of necessity. Someone in this situation is not likely to act on the recommendations of the audit because he can’t. It then becomes a burdensome tax at a time, of all times, when we can least afford it. On the other hand, the buyer, - if one can be found - will use the audit to drive the price down further than the market has already done.
This law, if passed, is a catastrophe waiting to happen, and McGuinty and Smitherman, are obviously away on a distant planet and have not heard the recent economic developments. The "new jobs" this creates will be unproductive, paper-pushing, make-work, which will suck more taxes from us and depress the economy further. Ask yourself how much good McGuinty’s health tax did for you.
This government is about to put memories of Bob Rae’s fiscal incompetence to rest forever. Rumors of a $15 billion deficit have surfaced, and they will be looking for every possible tax squeeze they can invent. Go to the Government of Ontario www.ontario.ca/ website and write your MPs and stop the insulation registry before it gets off the ground, or it is only the beginning.
For Windsor, contact Duncan at dduncan.mpp@liberal.ola.org , and Pupatello at spupatello.mpp@liberal.ola.org .
February 26th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Great post!
The National Post calls the Home Energy Audit the ‘ultimate in anti-stimulus.’
February 26th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
[…] Fushci has a great post up - Stop McGuinty’s Insulation Registry. Posted in Dalton McGuinty, Keep that green in MY pocket, Ontario - yours to recover someday, […]
February 26th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
The wait time now for a voluntary audit can be 2 to 3 months. Who is to hire and train the hundreds of inspectors required to handle the increased
business, the Ont. government? They already anticipate a massive deicit.
I suspect that once in place the audit would resemble the Drive Clean program, it would expand to include an inventory of all Ont. homes. Like the Gun Registry it would represent an intrusion by the state into private personal property. The idea that your private dwelling, which police must have a search warrant to examine, would be open to government licensed inpectors is trully scary
February 26th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Heaven forbid a general home inspection be required; it will identify only major structural and mechanical deficiencies in a property. No, the house may have a faulty foundation or unsafe roof structure, but Messrs. McGuinty and Suzuki will see to it that it’s not drafty!
A few problems:
1. under a bank sale (power of sale or foreclosure), who will tell the federally-regulated lender to provide an energy audit?
2. In condominium homes, the building envelope is considered a common element and not the individual owner’s responsibility. In fact, individual owners are usually prohibited from altering such components. Is an energy auditor to test a twenty-storey building for each sale?
3. Energy audits are non-transferable, so any buyer hoping to amend deficiencies and collect fed/prov rebates would have to pay for a second audit.
Sorry to run on so; can you tell I’m p***ed off?
February 26th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
With good reason. This turkey has to be stopped before it’s cooked.
February 19th, 2010 at 8:36 am
A very intelligent post indeed but I am looking for more information on insulation rebates in Australia. Perhaps I’ll drop by again when you’ve written more about it. Thanks by the way ^_^
June 30th, 2010 at 3:45 am
hopefully, we would be shifting more and more towards green energy in the future.’*;
September 6th, 2010 at 6:19 am
we must shift into the use of Green Energy to prevent further pollution of this planet`**