When are we going to learn? Another expensive boondoggle from Ontario's Premier

by ScottK
(Merrickville)

So Dalton McGuinty's solution to 'green enegy' is to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to lure South Korean company Samsung to Ontario.

Samsung is receiving an 'incentive' - i.e. BRIBE - in the amount of $437 million to set up green energy facilities in Ontario. This is supposed to be a good deal, because 1,440 jobs will be 'created'.

A little math shows this amounts to more than $300,0000 per job. Congratulations, Dalton! A brilliant piece of negotiation, with my money!

Let's recap, shall we? first, our leaders threw billions of dollars at car manufacturers (also foreign-owned) to build more cars nobody wants. Now we are bribing in another foreign company, that pushes Canadian and Ontario green energy companies to the 'back of the pack'.

Samsung get's first crack at this lucrative market, wherein the Ontario government pays many times the going rate for green energy. And they get priority access to the distribution grid, which has limited capacity and is the bottleneck in the process.

Now a rational person might have thought, 'if the breakdown-prone, inefficient distribution grid is a large part of the problem (remember Ice Storm 98?) then maybe we should be encouraging local generation of power'?

But wait! What would happen to all those $100,000+ /year jobs at Ontario Hydro if we all had control of our own energy production? We can't let that happen! Full steam ahead, towards centralization and the past!

When are we going to learn the lesson, people? There is no more expensive, inefficient, and ultimately ineffective way to to ANYTHING than to have the government do it. This includes 'job creation', or any other scheme to distribute the wealth.

When are citizens going to understand that governments don't create wealth, they consume it and (at best) then spread a little bit of it around.

This latest deal makes it apparent, once again, that solutions to the economic crisis, or climate crisis, or any other large-scale systemic problem will not come from our fearless leaders. Their only answer is to throw more of our money at a problem.

And they absolutely don't want to admit that the days of enormous, centralized solutions are OVER. Their whole power base is dependent on this model, and they are terrified it will become irrelevant.

So wake up, and realize that your government is bereft of ideas, and incapable of solving ANYTHING. Real solutions will come from communities, individuals and companies that actually DO create something of value.

Look around, see what you can do to be more self-sufficient - in transportation, energy, food, whatever - and get started. Because when the compost really hits the fan, you will be relying on yourself and your community for survival.



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Jan 24, 2010
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starstarstarstarstar 		They're not dumb, just dangerous!
by: ScottK

My experience working in just about every federal government department and agency at one time or another (as a consultant, my other life) tells me that most officials aren't dumb; it's just that the systems and processes that run these agencies are set up to perpetuate and benefit themselves, not the public that is paying for it all.

There is no real penalty for major mistakes, and there are no incentives to improve operations and save money. In fact the budget system in place is set up to MAKE SURE every department spends the most money possible; if you don't spend all your budget this year, you may be 'cut back' next year.

I am considered an expert in Performance Measurement, (I have led dozens of successful Performance Measurement projects, I have taught Public Sector Change Management at the MBA level, and I wrote a book on the topic) and I can tell you that real results are NOT measured by ANY department.

If departments were held accountable for actual accomplishments - i.e. things that improve conditions for Canadians - they would be almost completely unable to prove a benefit they provided.

Sadly, the only crime in the Public Service is embarrassing the Minister; THAT will get you canned, especially if you are a 'whistle-blower' exposing yet another example of incompetence or greed.

So this disconnect from real-world consequences is what makes these officials dangerous; they're not dumb, they're just playing by different rules.
Jan 24, 2010
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starstarstarstarstar 		It's a broken system
by: Anonymous

I work in government in the health care sector. I watch daily as moronic decisions are made and money is wasted as if it grew on trees (ie. E-Health) I am far down the food chain and merely a grunt (an underpaid grunt who has been told for 5 years there is not money for raises!) and I am sick of watching things go into the crapper.

I find it crazy how things are run and if we ran our lives or companies like that we wouldn't survive. I could rant on and on but let's face it a prerequisite for a government official is stupidity and lack of common sense.

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