The Green Jobs Money Pit

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In my column for the National Post, I discuss how creating a fruit and vegetable market in Ontario is more efficient than the typical "green jobs" strategy.

As we all know, Ontario is struggling to find new jobs for displaced industrial workers. I propose we put those people to work in the promising new market for tropical fruits and vegetables: pineapple, mangoes, hearts of palm, things like that.

You may object: Ontario is not especially well-suited to growing such products. I answer: Yes, that's true today. But not necessarily tomorrow.

I will sign a $7-billion dollar contract with the Dole pineapple company if they will open a pineapple field in Ontario. I will promise to buy their pineapples at a premium over the current market price for pineapples: 300%, 400%, whatever it takes. Who says no to money like that? And in exchange, they'll hire some people.

Admittedly, they may not hire very many people: 200 at this facility, 150 at that. But you have to tally the indirect jobs too! Or better yet, let me and my ingenious accountants tally the jobs for you. Mmm. 200 plus 150 plus this number I'm pulling out of my . OK, that makes 20,000. May I count on your vote?

No? But Dalton McGuinty apparently expects that a slight variant on the plan will work for him.

On Friday, the Ontario Premier delivered a stinging partisan speech at the Flextronics solar panel factory in Newmarket, Ont. There he warned that if his government is defeated, the factory will close.

But if that claim is true, think what it means for the 13.2 million Ontarians who do not work for Flextronics. If true, McGuinty's claim reveals that the only reason those Flextronics jobs exists is that his government has given the factory a deal that would be acceptable to no other buyer on planet Earth. This is supposed to be an argument in favour of McGuinty's re-election?

At enormous cost to the Ontario taxpayer and electricity user, the McGuinty government has joined together two unrelated ideas into one disastrous energy policy:

Idea 1: Ontario should pay the price to shift from coalfired electricity to wind and solar power.

Idea 2: Ontario should subsidize companies that manufacture wind and solar generators. This is the so-called "green jobs" strategy, and a moment's thought shows how foolish it is.

Click here to read the entire column.