Sneaky Little Budget Cuts

The photo above depicts Awenda in sepia tones. Its perhaps an odd choice for a blue landscape, but it does have a different charm in the warmth of sepia tones.

These days I'm nervous about reading the newspaper - not that this stops me, but every time I do it reveals a quiet sneaky little budget cut, many of which I can't make sense of. Today, the report I saw was cutting grants to homeowners who made renovations to their house to improve energy efficiency. While I know that there are scarce government funds to cover the wide demands of the masses, it just doesn't seem like a sensible move for this government. The conservatives are cutting its Kyoto funding for a "made in Canada" green house solution, framed in that context this cut seems counter intuitive. The Energuide program appears to be a perfect way for improve energy efficiency (thus reducing fossil fuel consumption and green house gas emissions) by giving citizens an incentive to renovate. Citizen's still foot the majority of the bill (I'm not entirely sure on the facts, but the average subsidy was about $750 - and renovations aren't cheap.) and it also pumps the economy in Canada as most renovations hire local contractors and I'd imagine purchase material in Canada. I wouldn't be surprised to see the same program reintroduced as part of the new strategy just so that the current government would get credit. Cynical, aren't I?

Here is a link to the Toronto Star Report.

Cheers,

Jennith