Friday’s swearing in of Doug Ford and his cabinet will be watched with great interest by Guelph-based businesses that planned around the availability of Green Ontario rebates, says the president and CEO of the local Chamber of Commerce.
The incoming PC government served notice last week that the Green Ontario Fund (GreenON) — a green energy rebate program offered by the previous Liberal government — will be ending. That cancelling may have an effect on many clean energy, manufacturing and building jobs in Guelph, said Kithio Mwanzia.
The Guelph Chamber of Commerce represents a ‘significant number’ of businesses that are affected by the cancellations of GreenON, said Mwanzia.
Those affected businesses represent many sectors, including home builders, renovation businesses and manufacturers, he said.
The chamber president hopes the Ford government will have a plan to offset the potential losses to these businesses due to the cancelling of the fund.
“While this announcement impacts businesses that have built their business model around access to the Green Ontario fund, I am looking forward to seeing what the Ford government’s plans are to support business,” said Mwanzia.
Just a few months ago, the Guelph Chamber of Commerce was advocating for the previous Liberal provincial government to expand the GreenON to allow for new home builders to be eligible for rebates.
Mwanzia said the business community will have a better insight into the new provincial government’s plans for business when the speech from the throne is read Friday at Queen’s Park.
“We will have the opportunity to see, potentially, the mandate letter and that will offer us the space to be able to think about where the government’s thinking is and how we can work with them to offer ways in which they can support businesses - particularly in this community,” said Mwanzia.
"People are waiting to see what emerges out of the agenda. Rhetoric and campaigning is one thing, but articulating an agenda will be what is most important,” said Mwanzia. "If the government articulates a policy or program, that is surety. That will come out within the next few days and based on that, businesses will begin to react and decide on what they are going to do.”
GreenON was funded by the proceeds of Ontario’s cap-and-trade system, which Ford has promised to scrap.
Scrapping the cap-and-trade system without a backup plan is reckless, said Mike Schreiner, leader of the Green Party who was elected earlier this month to be Guelph’s member of provincial parliament.
“I ask you to slow down. To consider the costs of your campaign slogans. To give businesses time to adjust. To show us a plan before killing what’s in place,” said Schreiner in an open letter to Ford sent Thursday and shared with media.
In the letter, Schreiner added: “your decision to shut down Ontario’s GreenON rebate programs without notice is causing businesses to reconsider their investments in Ontario. You have told them that we are closed for business.”
Mwanzia said it is too soon to raise alarms on the potential for businesses to reconsider investments in Ontario.
We haven’t heard a throne speech or seen mandate letters. That’s really what articulates how a government will execute its agenda. There isn’t much benefit to speculating,” said Mwanzia. “It would be premature to think we are going to see an exodus of businesses.”
The Guelph Chamber of Commerce will continue to advocate for public policy that supports businesses to stay and grow in Ontario, he said.
"We need to articulate where our strengths are and advocate those strengths to the government and have them design programs to support those strengths," said Mwanzia.
