At the October 9 Council agenda  my motion about Canada’s Clean Energy Regulations will be considered.  It was seconded by Councillor Avia Eek.

I decided to put forth this motion once I understood the principles of the Regulations:  reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enable affordable electricity for Canadians and businesses, enable reliable electrical grids. A clean reliable electricity grid is central to our desire to live in a prosperous low-carbon future. The demand for electricity in Canada is increasing dramatically as our population grows and as we, both residents and business, change our habits and practices to reduce the use of fossil fuels.

The Federal Government is developing the Clean Electricity Regulations (CER) to enable a cleaner grid in Ontario and across all jurisdictions in our country. This motion encourages the Federal Government to enact the strongest possible CER.  A strong, reliable grid supports an earlier motion by King asking for the phase out of natural gas electricity plants; it is also supports our Official Plan which promotes alternative energy systems.

The CER is very timely in that Ontario has launched a large competitive energy procurement for more energy resources from 5 possible technologies.  Its important that the energy from both these new sources and current ones is delivered reliably with less emissions and is affordable.

In addition, the motion repeats our opposition to any new gas generation facilities in King.  Also it calls on the Province to invest more in both conservation program to reduce electricity use and incentives to eliminate use of fossil fuels by switching to products powered by electricity.

As always you can participate in the Council and make a deputation on this motion  in person or virtually.  For details on how to do please see Council agenda.  Or you can send an email to clerks@king.ca by Oct. 15 Tuesday noon with your comments, questions.