Canadian Green Jobs

"VAST JOB OPPORTUNITIES" IN GREEN ENERGY ACT, MINISTER SAYS

TORONTO – Homeowners in Ontario will be forced to conduct energy audits before selling their property as part of new legislation introduced Monday at Queen’s Park.

The change is one of many provisions in the province’s new Green Energy Act, a law the government claims will generate 50,000 new jobs in the next three years while raising the average electricity bill by only one per cent.

Energy minister George Smitherman said there will be “vast job opportunities in more efficient building design and retrofits for architects, engineers, contractors and installers.”

“Work for builders, financiers, electricians and inspectors … in contruction, manufacturing and assembly, servicing and installation, engineering and trucking,” he said.

Smitherman said the jobs numbers were derived from economic modeling. Officials could not provide any projections, however, on how much the government will spend to support the provisions.

The legislation will also streamline project approvals, amend building codes for new construction, mandate more efficient appliances, and provide zero or low-interest loans to homeowners who wish to build their own small scale solar, micro-wind, ground source heat pumps or solar thermal projects.

The government will also offer a guaranteed price – and will require a certain amount of local content - for all renewable power, including wind, solar, hydro, biomass, biogas and landfill gas. That price has not been set.

Smitherman said that provision, known as a feed-in-Tariff, would put Ontario on a level of “global green power leaders like Denmark, Germany and Spain.”

The legislation sets out broad-stroke intentions. Details could take years to develop regulations that bring those intentions into effect.

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