One of the excuses the B.C. government gave for springing the HST on unsuspecting taxpayers was because Ontario was doing it. Seems the government wants to copy Ontario in other ways as well. The release of B.C.’s new Clean Energy Act in April has B.C. competing with Ontario to see whose handouts will 'attract' the most so-called clean and green energy investment in Canada. 'Attracting' clean energy investments will somehow keep electricity rates competitive and create jobs. However, the evidence from both Ontario and abroad is clear – green-energy corporate welfare leads to higher energy prices and fewer jobs.

Electricity in Ontario was never cheap, but since passing its Green Energy Act in May 2009, electricity in Ontario is set to become the most expensive in Canada. Subsidies to alternative energy companies will increase the cost of electricity to 14.5 cents per kilowatt hour by 2011, or about $300 more per year for families to heat their homes and cook their food.

In comparison, B.C. ratepayers pay BC Hydro 6-to-8.3 cents per kilowatt hour for power.

Can you say wood burning stove?

The Ontario premier wants to force Ontario families to pay more to heat their homes in the winter because the Green Energy Act will somehow create 50,000 jobs.

The experience from Europe shows this will probably not work.

In Spain, subsidies to clean power producers destroyed jobs in metallurgy, non-metallic mining and food processing, beverage and tobacco industries. Most of the renewable energy jobs created in Spain were temporary and created in the construction of the renewable energy projects. Only one-in-ten jobs in the 'green' energy sector was a permanent job and included those in operation and maintenance of the renewable sources of energy. It cost almost $900,000 to create each 'green' job in Spain. The unemployment rate in Spain now hovers around 20 per cent.

The lessons here are clear: large-scale corporate welfare schemes that promote eco-fads are expensive failures. If we really want to be competitive with Ontario, we would maintain our low-cost energy advantage, not throw it away. Governments have proven again and again that forcing taxpayers to fund subsidy schemes that try to pick winners makes losers out of competitors, taxpayers and consumers.