Monthly Archives: February 2010

02.09.10
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Millions Have Been Invested in Wind Farms, but That Hasn’t Brought Jobs

Erie Shores Wind Farm


Posted by Ian:
Following Ontario’s $7 billion deal with Samsung, will the province really benefit from the creation of green energy jobs? Not according to a study looking at the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which found early $2 billion has been spent on wind power, funding the creation of enough new wind farms to power 2.4 million homes over the past year. But the study found that nearly 80 percent of that money has gone to foreign manufacturers of wind turbines.

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02.09.10
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Ontario looks beyond the struggling auto sector

Ford Canada St. Thomas Assembly Plant


Ontario’s auto industry is facing ongoing consolidation with the upcoming closing of a Ford Motor Co. plant in St. Thomas in 2011. Last year, General Motors Corp. closed a light truck plant in Oshawa. Auto analyst Dennis DesRosiers, president of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants Inc. in Richmond Hill, Ont., says Ontario’s auto industry has lost 50,000 jobs since 2006 and has been hurt by long-term structural change as well as cyclical issues related to the economy.

It is also becoming increasingly difficult to compete with lower-cost plants in parts of the U.S. and Mexico that are not unionized, he says. As a result, he expects Canada’s share of total North American auto production — virtually all of which takes place in Ontario — to drop to as low as 12% during the next four to five years from its current perch of 16%.

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02.06.10
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Engaging debate or Mixed Martial Arts?

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After signing the appropriate paperwork Tuesday at city hall, Downtown Development Board chairman Mark Cosens delivered what will surely be the understatement of the year.

“Over the next eight months we will, I am sure, be having a full, lively and engaging debate about how it is we move our city forward.”

You have to delve back no further than the closure of Talbot Street in the summer of 2008 to get the essence of how the hopeful mayor Mark and the incumbent Mayor Cliff Barwick regard each other’s political abilities.
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