Tories Announce Energy Efficiency Plan

[stignasty]

You know what would happen then don't you? It would be something like "LOOK HOW THOSE CONSERVATIVES ARE TURNING TO AN AMERICAN STYLE SMEAR CAMPAIGN!!"

Soldier's in our streets, with guns. I am not making this up. BAH

LOL my point exactly Ricki Bobbi!

Well, mine too, actually.

[Ricki Bobbi]

You know what would happen then don't you? It would be something like "LOOK HOW THOSE CONSERVATIVES ARE TURNING TO AN AMERICAN STYLE SMEAR CAMPAIGN!!"

Soldier's in our streets, with guns. I am not making this up. BAH

LOL my point exactly Ricki Bobbi!

Well, mine too, actually.

Apropos of nothing to do with the OP, I think people really don't get the "American-style attack ads."

That label doesn't stick if the ads are based in reality and have a good point to make.

It didn't work in 1993 with the Jean Chretien ads run by the PCs, because the guy has a medical condition. Didn't work in 2006 for the Liberals because their ads were such an incredible nose-stretcher that people didn't buy them. Both were terrible and would never have been run at the national level in the US.

Ads going after Dion's terrible environmental record while in that portfolio could work if done right. Even negative media coverage would get people thinking. "Yeah, Dion didn't do very much as Environment Minister, so why should we trust him to be PM???"

[August1991]

An Energuide to me is just another gov't building filled with white collar welfare and we have to stop looking to big brother to control our lives.

They need to govern Canada and get out of the appliances business. That market will look after itself. And yes I need a furnace and will pay more for the ultra efficient models becuase I"ll make the money back; not because of gov't rebates.

MikeDavid, I have to agree with you.

Government rebates of this sort turn into bureaucratic boondoggles. To get the money, you have to fill numerous forms and provide various receipts that are often rejected because they are incorrect. IOW, you have to go through a specialist installer who happens to know how the government programme works and what forms to complete or what equipment is authorized. Not surprisingly, the specialist installer takes a large cut of the rebate - for his specialist knowledge.

This says nothing about the neighbour who installed new equipment last year but didn't get the rebate because the programme wasn't in place or another neighbour who can't install new equipment because the house is different.

At present, the government of PEI gives buyers of hybrid cars a $2000 rebate. Why? I don't know.

The federal government cannot and should not get involved in this kind of policy. The personal tax system is already far too complicated - it is no place to implement environmental policy.

I sometimes think that Harper has the imagination and mentality of his father, an Imperial Oil accountant. Such people love arcane rules and can't understand why other people find such details mind-bogglingly irrelevant.

[Riverwind]

At present, the government of PEI gives buyers of hybrid cars a $2000 rebate. Why? I don't know.

I recently took a ride in one of the Toyota Prius taxi cabs that are all over Vancouver now a days. I got into an interesting chat with the owner/operator about the economics of low fuel vehicles. I was surprised at how poor the business case is for buying a high efficiency vehicle even with the gas prices we have today.

The numbers looked something like this:

The Prius costs $10K more than an equivalent vehicle and will save about 5 liters/100kms in gas.

With $1/liter gas you would need to drive 200,000 kms to break even on the capital cost.

However, the batteries have to be replaced every 160K and they cost $4000 each.

This means you would need to drive close to 350,000 km to break even on the extra costs.

A taxi typically has a lifetime of 700,000-800,000 kms which means this guy is expecting to save around 24K over the lifetime of the vehicle. If gas rises to 1.25/liter he stands to save 34K - enough to buy a new vehicle.

So the business case for a taxi driver makes sense but it would take the average driver 15 years to break even on the additional upfront costs associated with the purchase of a Prius.

My conclusion is we will have to subsidize these vehicles or tax the inefficient vehicles if we want people to buy them. Without those incentives most people will stick with the less efficient vehicles to save money.

[geoffrey]

So the business case for a taxi driver makes sense but it would take the average driver 15 years to break even on the additional upfront costs associated with the purchase of a Prius.

Most people don't keep their cars past 3 or 4 years in my experience.

[jdobbin]

The last thing Canada needs is more social engineering of our tax system and an environmental policy that is all (excuse me) smoke and mirrors.

Nevertheless, I have a little more patience for the Tories yet.

I can't imagine you voting anyone else.

[jdobbin]

Most people don't keep their cars past 3 or 4 years in my experience.

In Alberta that might be the case. In fact, I thought the turnover was even faster than that.

Other places like Manitoba it is not unusual for ten years for a car. Most don't last 10 years.

[Fortunata]

Most people don't keep their cars past 3 or 4 years in my experience.

My first car was my parent's 15 year old volkswagen. I used it for 7 years while I went to school, sold it to another student who used it through school and as far as I know it is still on the road.

[Topaz]

This plan would be a good one, but there are major faults with it. For the home, and the $5000.00 total for fixing up your house to make it energy efficient. The houses built before the 80's , have huge windows and most were single pane. One ie. is a 12ft wide by 6ft length. This window is price at least 5200.00, most other sizes are 6ftx6ft which do cost alot of money. To upgrade a heating system is $2500 -$7500, depending if you have duct work within the house. There's also that alot of people can't afford to bring their homes up to standard , especially those of fixed income. This money the government is paying out is Canadians tax $$ and I feel they should pay at least half of the cost of doing this. Perhaps get more of a tax credit for ever $1000's spent.

[geoffrey]

Most people don't keep their cars past 3 or 4 years in my experience.

My first car was my parent's 15 year old volkswagen. I used it for 7 years while I went to school, sold it to another student who used it through school and as far as I know it is still on the road.

In Quebec the emissions that sends out is likely comparable to murder in terms of public scorn.

[blueblood]

Most people don't keep their cars past 3 or 4 years in my experience.

My first car was my parent's 15 year old volkswagen. I used it for 7 years while I went to school, sold it to another student who used it through school and as far as I know it is still on the road.

In Quebec the emissions that sends out is likely comparable to murder in terms of public scorn.

I'd hate to see my truck there

[hiti]

It's an improved energuide for sure... but it's still founded on energuide.

I'm curious about what the cost was of cutting energuide to just bring it back later. All that severance pay for people we're just going to rehire isn't going to be cheap... let alone all of the other costs.

The smart plan would been to restructure energuide, beef it up, change it to suit the CPC's goals. Not fire everyone, dismantle the program and rebuild from the ground a month or two later.

Improved for whom? Certainly not the working poor and seniors. They again have been shafted by Steve.

http://www.liberal.ca/news_e.aspx?id=12183

"But even worse than that, of those people who had the audits done, only 30 per cent of those actually went on to do renovations. Seventy per cent of the people didn't do anything, and nothing was done for the environment."

In fact, that 70% was also shafted by Steve and company. They were the people who had the audit but could not complete the program cause Steve canceled it. Seems like Steve's bunch will say just about anything to get the votes.