Bruce Lourie’s Creations of “Climate Change” Entities Transition into Charities Chapter Two

Noted in Chapter One of this series was the fact Bruce Lourie had created, amongst others, the Canadian Environmental Grantmakers Network several years ago but the organizations name had been changed to Environment Funders Canada (EFC). Lourie has a habit of creating entities associated with the “climate change” objective and later on changing their names. The other strange thing about his creations is the websites related to the creations seldom, if ever, have a “search” capability so as a result it is virtually impossible to find any references on the site connecting them to the founder which is the case with EFC. Lourie is not listed as either a member of the Board of Directors or in the list of Staff and searching in their posted articles and their annual statements will not have his name pop up!  His biography posted on CCI (Canadian Climate Institute) where he sits as a Director does note that he was “a founding Director of the Canadian Environmental Grantmakers’ Network“.  One should wonder does that suggest perhaps he is a humble individual but, if that was the case, his biographies posted on the web presumably wouldn’t suggest he would seek speaking engagements for a fee!

Bruce A. Lourie is listed as the President in the Ivey Foundations 2019 CRA filing but the 2020 filing shows the President is Bruce A. Laurie. There is no “directors” listed in the 2021 filing! One would assume that “Laurie” is simply an error unless they have replaced him with someone with an almost identical name, but the latter seems unlikely.

The IVEY Foundation on their site state; they were “Established in 2014 as a strategic priority, Ivey Foundation’s primary focus is the Economy and the Environment granting program.“  Back in 2020 they basically said all future grants would be towards support of reaching the elusive “net-zero” emission target which implied no grants would be made for any other purpose. As noted in Chapter One back in late November 2022 Lourie announced the Ivey Foundation would disperse “its entire $100 million endowment over the next five years beginning in 2023.”

Interestingly enough should one review the CRA filings (December 31, 2021) for the Ivey Foundation it discloses the “Compensation range” for their employees. The following screenshot depicts that someone in the Foundation is paid in excess of $350K annually!  The above noted five-year windup will mean the “someone” at the Ivey Foundation may have been paid $1,750,000 to run a charity! Not too shabby!

Now, imagine how much the $1,750,000 would help food banks trying their best to feed families and seniors experiencing poverty due to energy costs rising which drive up the price of everything including what they need to eat?  Now also imagine how many families could be fed with the “$100 million endowment” destined for Lourie’s alumni. 

A brief review of the “grants” file on the Ivey Foundation website disclosed approximately $1,245,000 went to five (5) members of the Strathmere Group (Environmental Defence, Ecojustice, etc.) and $3,090.000 to five (5) of Lourie’s creations (Environment Funders Canada, The Transition Accelerator, Efficiency Canada, etc.) or where he was instrumental in their creation.

For some reason we should expect none of those employed by the Ivey Foundation or the ten companies we searched for on the Ivey “grant” site are worried about “energy poverty” or about the harm they and the myriad of climate cult charities entrenched within the CRA listings are causing.

Curiosity arose when the Ivey grants were totalled so a search of the Federal Government’s “Grant” files for the last 5 years was undertaken for those same ten entities referenced above and as it turns our the five (5) members of the Strathmere Group were handed grants of approximately $19.7 million and the five (5) entities associated with Bruce Lourie seem to have received grants of around $47.1 million. We should be pretty sure that much money would have helped lots of food banks across the country feed the undernourished families suffering from energy poverty!

We seem to be witnessing the advent of the “Circular Economy” that will apparently benefit the elite of our society which in this particular case are weirdly classified as “charities”!

“All new news is old news happening to new people”

The foregoing is a quote of Malcolm Muggeridge an English journalist famous for bringing the Mother Teresa story to world attention. My belief is the quote is appropriate to amplify how eco-warriors have continued their pursuit of what they once labelled “global warming”, but the world didn’t warm!  Because it didn’t warm, they changed the overriding message to “climate change” which most sane people in the world would easily agree has been happening during their lifetime and for tens or hundreds of thousands of years.

The following article and chart below was written and posted on the web almost eleven years ago and the message contained in it hasn’t changed materially other then it’s full-on amplification here in Canada and around the world because people fail to see; it is really old news! 

My hope is to expand on the activities of those in the below article through further research in an update that falls directly in line with what Malcolm Muggeridge so aptly delineated in his quote.

Stay tuned but read the following and see if you agree with the quote and remember the below article well be 11 years old next month so it’s old news!

Bruce Lourie’s Spider Web Grows and catches more Prey and Tax Dollars

An article I wrote in May 2012 identified the extent of Bruce Lourie’s reach into the world of climate change/renewable energy through a plethora of charities, not-for-profit and for-profit entities that he founded or where he exerts influence. This was elaborated on with a follow-up article that looked at  three of the companies he founded and attempted to trace some of the millions of taxpayer dollars that have found their way to those three. Included with the latter was a spider web that attempted to trace the connections and the money flow.

This piece will look at two more of the Lourie creations which are; The Sustainability Network and the Canadian Environmental Grantmakers Network (CEGN).

Reviewing the Sustainability Network’s website is an exercise in trying to define what they are trying to accomplish. The focus becomes somewhat clearer after reading what they see as their mission referred to as: “ Our mission is to enrich Canadian environmental leaders and non-profit organizations through programs, services and support that help them increase their capacity to lead, manage and strategize.” …and, “We are about sustaining the organizations that work on sustainability.”

So from all appearances, the Sustainability Network, who have received almost $1 million dollars from the Trillium Foundation (where Lourie sat as a Director) work with our tax dollars to sustain sustainable organizations. The inference is that the organizations that expect us to lead “sustainable” lives, can’t even sustain themselves. The Network also received support from the Ivey Foundation (Lourie is the President), Salamander Foundation (an Ivey affiliated foundation) and several other Foundations including Suncor Energy Foundation. It is ironic that the “renewable energy” crowd continually rant that the anti-wind and solar groups are funded by big oil, but they willingly take money from big oil while fighting further oilsands projects and the building of pipelines. Strange bedfellows!

The Sustainability Network has also received grants from Tides Canada, the Oak Foundation, the Catherine Donnelly Fund several other private foundations and a “Certified “B” Corp” referred to as “green living”. For those unfamiliar with Certified “B” corporations check out the MaRS Discovery District. A Certified “B” corporation is reportedly a business corporation that uses its powers to “solve social and environmental problems”. It operates somewhere between a for-profit and a not-for-profit is the way the writer interprets the gobbledygook. “B” corporations are an import from the US where they are seeking special tax status from municipal, state and federal governments. Green Living has an Advisory Board that includes; A. Heintzman of the Premier’s recently announced Clean Energy Task Force, Rick Smith who is on the same task force and the Executive Director of Environmental Defence, Geoff Cape of Evergreen, Bob Oliver of Pollution Probe, Dr. Moole of David Suzuki Foundation and Tim Gray of the Ivey Foundation.

The Sustainability Network is a charity, but you are hard pressed to find that out through a visit to their website as they don’t even appear to have a “donate” button. As a registered charity sustaining yourself through grants must allow you to preach to others how to go about doing the same and turns the CRA’s governance of charitable institutions into a joke. Those “strange bedfellows” (ENGOs & Oil Companies) mentioned above become stranger still if one looks at the Clean Air Renewable Energy Coalition (CAREC) originally founded by Suncor and the Pembina Institution in 2000. The member list now includes; Friends of the Earth, Pollution Probe, World Wildlife Fund, Toronto Environmental Alliance and many of the oil companies and renewable energy developers as well as OPG and Toronto Hydro. The objective of the organization is defined as; “Clean Air Renewable Energy Coalition is a group of corporate and environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) formed to accelerate the development of Canada’s renewable energy industry.” and defines its target as: “The coalition has been most targeted on, and influential at, the Federal level of government in Canada by advocating measures to narrow the gap (writer’s emphasis) between the price of “green power” and the price of “conventional power”.

On the latter point the ENGOs have been very effective in Ontario, simply by convincing the Liberal Government to drive up the price of electricity by paying above market rates to those industrial wind and solar developers that are represented on CAREC’s membership list.

The offices for the Sustainability Network are located at 215 Spadina Ave. Toronto which is coincidentally the same address as Tides Canada’s Toronto office and until recently also the home of another Lourie creation, the Canadian Environmental Grantmakers Network.

The latter Lourie creation, CEGN has as its mission; “To expand the scope and effectiveness of grantmaking in support of the Canadian environment.” and noted that the need for the network grew out of issues that reputedly are of a cross-border nature as the following attempts to explain: “There is growing interest on the part of American grantmakers in support to Canadian environmental issues and organizations.” If one, then looks at the membership list of CEGN it becomes obvious that foreign grantmakers and Canadian taxpayer owned foundations and other public sector organizations make up a large portion of the 59 members. There are 11 public sector entities such as the Ontario Power Authority, Trillium Foundation, Toronto Atmospheric Fund, Friends of the Greenbelt, etc. listed as members along with at least 7 US Foundations including several mentioned in Vivian Krause’s many articles in the Financial Post and on her website. Those include the Oak Foundation ($426,000 grant to Environmental Defence, $218,000 to the Sierra Club, $98,000 to OSEA, $87,000 to Pollution Probe and $1.4 million to Tides Canada), The Bullitt Foundation, the Wilburforce Foundation, etc. The Canadian members include three of the Ivey related foundations and in addition; Tides Canada, Suncor Energy Fund, the Shell Environmental Fund and the Canadian Boreal Initiative (not a foundation).

Another interesting aspect of the CEGN website is that they thank their “sustaining” members “whose very generous support of CEGN is much appreciated” and one of those on that list is the Trillium Foundation where Lourie sat as a Director for many years. One would think that with the hundreds of millions of dollars represented by the “private” foundations that are members of CEGN that they wouldn’t need to go cap in hand to a taxpayer owned institution for a grant, but they did and also got Trillium Foundation to become a sustaining member. One would also wonder at the wisdom of those dealing with the CEGN application at Trillium when confronted with the request for a grant. Environmentalists apparently are perhaps not concerned that the funds they take away for their own purpose might actually go to a truly worthy cause.

CEGN commissioned Tyler Hamilton, Editor in Chief of Corporate Knights and occasional writer for the Toronto Star to complete a paper titled: “How to Accelerate Canada’s Transition to a Green Economy and the Role for Philanthropy”. In the process of preparing this “Building Bridges” paper the author reportedly interviewed 11 Canadian “Thought Leaders” including Don Drummond, former Chief Economist of TD Bank, Jim Stanford, Economist with the CAW, Marlo Raynolds, Executive Director of Pembina, Preston Manning and several others. Leafing through the report is an interesting exercise to see how statements can be used in a fashion that decidedly puts these “Thought Leaders” in the environmental camp. The author’s conclusions identify the need to educate the unknowing public when it comes to climate change. Others reading this might conclude some of these “Thought Leaders” were suggesting a form of “brainwashing” which brings to mind the “thought police” of George Orwell’s book, 1984.

 The one summary in the paper that caught my eye was the one that stated; “be more creative with the use of public money”! As a taxpayer and ratepayer in Ontario my view is that the ENGOs have been extremely creative and continue to be. They all seem determined to tank the rest of the Canadian economy as they have effectively done in Ontario and along the way have used tax dollars and foreign grants to further their cause. To gain some idea of the creative ability of Mr. Lourie one only has to view the attached spider web of his connections and see how those connections work in conjunction with the money flows from taxpayers and foundations.

Reading “About the Author” of this paper was amusing as near the end of the list of his accomplishments; the point is made that Mr. Hamilton is now an adjunct professor at York University’s Faculty of Environmental Studies. Any of us following the craziness that is now labelled “climate change” or “renewable energy” is aware that York is the main breeding ground for the bulk of our self professed environmental experts including Bruce Lourie.

It is ironic that the taxpayers are picking up most of the costs to train the next generation of environmental “thought police”.

Parker Gallant, June 30, 2012

PS: One of the original posts of the above can be found at the following website and contains many of the links to the aforementioned parties! Hey Ontario!……..wanna know who’s getting your money?………..Not Health Care!!!! | The Big Green Lie (wordpress.com)

Mother’s Day gone with the Wind

Mother’s Day which was March 14^th this year, has come and gone, much like we grandfathers, grandmothers, sons and daughters here in Ontario have just had over $4 million taken from our pockets to pay for the intermittent supply of IWT (industrial wind turbines).  The money is gone because we didn’t need any IWT generation but because of their “first-to-the-grid” rights embedded in their contracts we were obliged to pay the IWT owners.

The day was atypical for the spring with demand reaching a lowly 5-minute peak of 14,627 MW during Hour 21 (hour ending at 9 PM) versus those much higher demand hours in the summer and winter months.

Needless to say IESO were busy trying to get rid of our surplus power by selling it off to Michigan, New York and Quebec as nuclear plus our baseload hydro were more than enough to supply us for the full 24 hours.  As it turned out net-exports (exports minus imports) were 65,498 MWh (about what 2.2 million households consume daily) and the market price, ie: HOEP (hourly Ontario Energy Price) averaged only $3.88/MWH or 0.04 cents/kWh!  What that means is we earned a grand total of only $$254K from their sale but our costs for their generation was up around the $7 million mark.

Naturally a big part of the above costs were the IWT generated power as IESO forecast they would generate 33,627 MWh but they only accepted 23,822 into the grid so the other 9,805 MWh were curtailed. As most Ontarians know we pay $135/MWh for grid accepted IWT generation and another $120/MWh for what is curtailed so the total amount we taxpayers/ratepayers paid to the IWT owners was approximately $4.4 million or about 63% of the $7 million cost of all the exported surplus power.

It is worth noting grid accepted IWT generation only represented around 36% of the total net-exported MWh we sold but their generation and curtailed power surely played a significant role in driving down the market price as  the buyers would recognize we had to sell it off or give it away for nothing.

As if to reinforce the latter the HOEP for 12 of the 24 hours yesterday reported by IESO was 0.00/MWh!

Once again, the events surrounding the intermittent and unreliable nature of those IWT clearly demonstrated their uselessness unless it is to reduce emissions from coal plants* located elsewhere!

*A recent Scott Luft post demonstrates how we Ontarians are helping Michigan reduce their emissions from those nasty coal plants but they are not giving us any carbon credits we could sell off to recoup some of the IWT costs!

Canadian Climate Institute has now Morphed into a Charity—Huh?

The CCI was originally called the Canadian Institute for Clean Growth and Climate Change (CICGCC) when originally created by Catherine McKenna as the Federal Minister of the Environment and Climate Change. The announcement was made as an outgrowth of a reputed “competition” and McKenna handed the winning bidder; “The Pan-Canadian Expert Collaboration” a group headed up by Kathy Bardswick,  former President and CEO of The Co-operators Group Ltd; $20 million of our tax dollars. That $20 million was for the anticipated five (5) year process of using; “Their expertise is a source of clean-growth solutions for Canada and the world and can help all of us mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change.“ The original name suggested whatever was to come from this new taxpayer funded organization produced by their “expertise” was a foregone conclusion so the name was changed to the “Canadian Institute for Climate Change” or CICC.

Needless to say the Pan-Canadian “collaboration” was full of the usual gang of ENGO, charitable foundations and included government entities as an earlier article disclosed when CCI was called the “Canadian Institute for Climate Change” or CICC.

It is now called the Canadian Climate Institute and they have; presumably with the blessing of the CRA  (Canada Revenue Agency), converted this government created organization to a CHARITY! 

One should wonder why they became a charity as they were a “not-for-profit” institution annually receiving the $4 million to display their “expertise” via those unbiased reports (sarcasm intended) promised by former Minister McKenna. It appears the annual $4 million of our tax dollars wasn’t enough as displayed on page 2 of their Annual Impact Report for 2022-2023!  It states:

“The Canadian Climate Institute is a non-partisan pan-Canadian charitable organization. Our work is made possible through the financial support of Environment and Climate Change Canada, and the generous support of the Ivey Foundation, Scotiabank, Loblaw Companies Limited, QuadReal Property Group, and the Trottier Family Foundation.“ As an aside a review of the above only disclosed one contribution of $20K from the Trottier Foundation via the CRA filings whereas the Ivey Foundation failed to provide their “donee” list to the CRA. One should wonder why the CRA doesn’t enforce its regulations?

The CRA filing for CCI provides the salary ranges for the top 10 employees and the top earner, who presumably is the current CEO, Rick Smith, earns somewhere between $200,000 to $249,999!  No energy poverty for him!

Back on January 3, 2022 Rick Smith had an article published in Macleans titled “Let’s make climate change boring in 2022” and in it was the following paragraph:

“The U.K., for instance, has halved carbon emissions since 1990. It has settled into an annual cycle of executing the national carbon reduction plan, assessing progress against the plan, updating the plan, then repeating. It’s boring. It’s predictable. It’s working.“  

Interestingly enough Mr. Smith failed to even consider how reducing emissions would drive up home energy costs and they did; adding over 2 million more households in 2022 as the following quote from an article in the Guardian on February 28, 2023 notes:  “The number of households in England who spend more than 10% of their income, excluding housing costs, on energy has increased from 4.93m households in 2021 to 7.39m in 2022.“  He seems determined to do the same thing to Canadian households.  At his taxpayer funded salary however it is unlikely he will experience “energy poverty” so he presses on to increase energy poverty for the rest of the population!

Now looking at this charity it is interesting to note the financial information filed with the CRA for the year ended March 31, 2022, indicates charitable donations represented 0.2% (2/10^th of 1%) of their gross revenue strongly suggesting logical individuals fail to recognize them as a “charity”!

 Now having a look at Government Grants we should note CCI back on December 5, 2022 were handed a $500K Grant from the Federal Government described as “Policy analysis and stakeholder views on climate and environmental impacts of inactive oil and gas wells“.  Apparently the $4 million per year handed to the CCI is insufficient so they must gobble up another $500K of our tax dollars.

CCI Collaboration 

Looking further at the CCI Annual Impact Report for 2022-2023 it is interesting to read the message from the President, Rick Smith as he notes “In March 2023, the federal Sustainable Finance Action Council published the Taxonomy Roadmap Report. Our experts contributed to this inaugural taxonomy proposal, which starts to define what “green” and “transition” investing could look like in Canada, helping drive crucial private investments into activities that reduce emissions.“  The Smith message went on to say “In July 2022, the Climate Institute hosted our first roundtable showcasing Indigenous-led research and policy on climate change. And in October, we teamed up with the Net-Zero Advisory Body to cohost our first in-person national conference“

Sustainable Finance Action Council: For those who are not familiar with the Sustainable Finance Action Council it is another organization created by the Trudeau led Government on May 12, 2021, under Finance Minister Freeland and Jonathon Wilkinson, then Minister of Environment and Climate Change. They appointed Kathy Bardswick (former Chair of the CICC before it’s name change to CCI) as the inaugural Chair and the Press Release stated “Sustainable finance is about incorporating environmental, social and governance factors into investment decisions and is a fast-growing market that is gaining speed as more and more businesses address climate change and transition to a low-carbon economy and seize the economic opportunities it presents.“  The council was basically charged with aligning ESG within the controls of the many companies operating in the confines of finance including banks, insurance companies and pension funds.  Needless to say in the time that followed they had numerous meetings, plenary sessions etc. with various parties within the “financial sector” but none of the meetings, etc. appeared to be with sectors that manufacture products or distribute them, grow food and sell or serve it, those who supply energy and others who would be most affected by applying ESG standards to their businesses.  One should wonder why their views were not sought?

Net-Zero Advisory Body: This may be another unfamiliar named organization by the Trudeau led Government announced on February 25, 2021 by Jonathan Wilkinson, the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change at the time and he met with the newly appointed; Co-Chairs, Marie-Pierre Ippersiel and Dan Wicklum. The latter is CEO of the Transition Accelerator one of the many charities founded by Bruce Lourie where he sits as the Chair.  In a look at the CRA Charity files for the Transition Accelerator it discloses they have NEVER had a donation where they have been required to issue a “tax receipt”! They have been quite successful at obtaining Government Grants however, of at least $1.8 million.

Turning now to the Net-Zero Advisory Body (NZAB) we should note in January 2023 they delivered their first annual report. The co-chairs message to Minister Guilbeault about his “Emission Reduction Plan” had this to say: “The measures proposed in the 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) set credible foundations upon which a more ambitious transition can be built. While we are confident our advice will help put Canada on the right path, bringing the full suite of ERP measures and proposals to fruition as quickly and rigorously as possible is required for success.“ 

They said the foregoing despite the scary part of his original message which claimed: “Climate change is a crisis that persists and will only grow if we do not do more, faster. Flooding, landslides, drought, and wildfire—the mounting costs of extreme weather underscore the need to chart towards a future where Canadians have both a clean environment and a strong economy.“

It is amusing and mind-blowing to scan the 75 pages of the NZAB’s annual report and to visualize the destruction that will be caused to Canada’s economy via the 25 pieces of “advice” the report recommends in support of Guilbeault’s ERP. The issue related to costs of each piece of advice are not examined or commented on and only one reference to annual costs can be found. if one searches using the “$” sign only 9 can be found.  If one searches using “net-zero” however it generates 464 hits and “emissions” brings 171. We should have no doubt this is what was anticipated!

In respect to costs the report doesn’t analyze any of their “advice” and quotes other reports with only one in respect to the total annual costs which seems low: “For example, one study shows that a pan-Canadian energy transition in all sectors would cost up to $43.3 billion annually until reaching net-zero“ That would represent about 1.6% of Canada’s annual GDP (2022 estimates) and approximately 22.7% of the 2023 annual budget.  One should wonder where those billions will come from as we are already running significant annual budget deficits.

In other news about the NZAB they seem excited as some of them attended the COP 26 Conference in Glasgow and while there: NZAB, the CICC (now the CCI) and the IVEY Foundation (Bruce Lourie is the CEO) co-hosted an informal gathering with guests from the Canadian delegation and the ICCN. The two Co-Chairs posted pictures on their site with Trudeau, Guilbeault and Wilkinson but it’s hard to judge their excitement as they all have their masks on.

We should be pretty sure the above attendees at COP 26 in Glasgow were there thanks to the generosity of Canada’s taxpayers along with the other 270+ Canadian delegates that were in attendance.  

It seems readily apparent the Trudeau led government who will spend over $34 billion annually to service our national debt have no problem at spending another $43.3 billion annually to achieve the net-zero targets, even though it will have no effect on “global warming”!  It brings to mind our PM’s quote:

Ah, yes; “you’ll forgive me if I don’t think about monetary policy!”

Well then, could you PM Trudeau, at the least stop granting charitable status to institutions your government creates and stop throwing our tax dollars to them via “grants”!                                                          

Friends of Science Created a video of my recent post: The Strathmere Group has been Gobbling Up our Tax Dollars

I am delighted and excited that Michelle Stirling of Friends of Science liked my recent post about the Strathmere Group and decided to use the material to create a video going through the details of the post with some very interesting explanations and also spent time tying it into other reports.

It’s definitely worth a watch (personal prejudice aside) and you can find it here:

(136) The Strathmere Group has been Gobbling Up Our Tax Dollars – YouTube

Wind Disengages but Natural Gas and Hydro to the Rescue

As many know should you fly a propellor driven aircraft you need a fossil fuel engine to make that propellor spin and keep you flying! That analogy also applies to using wind to create electricity utilizing those IWT (industrial wind turbines).  If the wind isn’t blowing, we need either fossil fuel generation, hydroelectricity (water flowing through turbines) or nuclear generation to keep the lights on! Nuclear and most of hydroelectric generation are considered baseload power as is evident on an hourly, daily and annual basis whereas some hydro and natural gas generators stand at the ready to ramp UP or ramp DOWN.  In years past that ability allowed it to respond to the hourly electricity demand throughout the day but since the addition of wind and solar generation it is also required to be at the ready for times when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining.

Evidence of the foregoing is obvious from the following screenshot from IESO late on May 6^th, 2023, for the six days starting April 30, 2023, up to hour 20 on the 6^th!  The green (sprinkled with a little yellow) depicts the generation from wind with the occasional spot of yellow being solar generation.   

As the expression goes; “a picture is worth a thousand words” and the foregoing does that as wind generation was quite in evidence during the first three May days but suddenly almost disappeared as we traversed into the 4^th and 5^th of May.  Thankfully our natural gas plants were available to fill in for the missing wind and solar generation and the Spring Freshet supplied water for our rammable hydroelectric generation sources.

What wind and solar generation do is basically layer additional costs on to what we pay for electricity in the province with their first to the grid rights.  Ontario’s ratepayers/taxpayers are therefore forced to pickup approximately $6.5 billion of annual costs associated with their; “on again, off again” generation to pretend we are actually having a positive effect on reducing emissions.

Highly unlikely emissions have been reduced considering the emissions generated by the mining and manufacturing processes required for those IWT and solar panels! Ah, but our politicians here in Canada know those emissions were created in another country so will blatantly ignore that latter fact!

As Walter Scott is credited with saying hundreds of years ago; “O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive!“

The Strathmere Group Have Been Gobbling up our Tax Dollars

As pointed out in a series of eleven articles starting back in September 2020 and concluding in September 2021 the “Strathmere Group”, consisting of ten (10) charities and two (2) not-for-profit entities, were out to save the world from “climate change”! 

The history of the group and their partnership with each other as well as 21 U.S. environmental groups was inspired by none other then Jerry DeMarco who is at present the Federal, Environmental Commissioner, in the Auditor General’s office.  A paper written by DeMarco stated, “environmental non-government organizations (ENGOs) must overcome the “silos” isolating them from one another in order to “think and act like a movement”. 

Needless to say, with some minor shuffles in the “Strathmere Group” they certainly overcame the “silo” and now benefit substantially with our tax dollars while we taxpayers suffer the consequences of their agenda which has been totally endorsed by the current minority Federal Liberal Government and supported by the NDP.

The  Strathmere Group and their leaders in 2009 were:

Rick Bates, Executive Director, Canadian Wildlife Federation, Gerald Butts, President and CEO, WWF-Canada, Bruce Cox, Executive Director, Greenpeace Canada, Stephen Hazell, Executive Director, Sierra Club Canada, Eric Hebert-Daly, National Executive Director, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Bob Oliver, Executive Director, Pollution Probe, Devon Page, Executive Director, Ecojustice, Marlo Raynolds, Executive Director, Pembina Institute, Sidney Ribaux, Executive Director, Equiterre, Peter Robinson, President, David Suzuki Foundation, Graham Saul, Executive Director, Climate Action Network Canada and Rick Smith, Executive Director, Environmental Defence Canada.

The reader will notice three names have been highlighted above who are; Gerald Butts, Malo Raynolds and Rick Smith and most readers will instantly recognize why! Those three have either played significant roles in executing their beliefs or continue in positions influencing politicians in both the Federal and Provincial governments. Butts will be remembered as being Trudeau’s right-hand man and also responsible for the Green Energy Act pushing renewable energy in Ontario and doubling electricity bills. Raynolds should be regarded as primarily responsible for the Strathmere Group’s formation and mandate. Raynolds was also a losing Liberal candidate in the 2015 Federal election but despite that became Chief of Staff in 2015 under Catherine McKenna when she was Minister of the Environment and Climate Change. Rick Smith moved on from President of Environmental Defence to become President of the Canadian Climate Institute created by the Trudeau government with $20 million of our tax dollars to push the “net-zero” agenda.

Interestingly Raynolds now is the “Executive in Residence” at Arc Financial Corp. whose website states: “ARC is focused on investing in conventional oil and gas and in sustainable energy industries. Located in Calgary, the heart of the Canadian energy sector, ARC has access to attractive, competitive opportunities and a pool of talented and experienced entrepreneurs.“ It appears Raynolds has been hired to presumably get ARC to exit the oil and gas sector and move their $6 billion portfolio into those wind, solar and hydrogen renewable developments that he was pushing when Chief of Staff in his former position which presumably included doling out government grants! Surely someone dedicated to the philosophy he visualized when creating the Strathmere Group will continue his life’s mission in his new job!

Our Tax Dollars going to the Strathmere Group members:

As it has been well over two years since the series of articles about the Strathmere Group, it’s worth looking back over the past five (5) years to see if our tax dollars have found their way into the pockets of the ten (10) charities.

While there were twelve members in the group the “charitable status excludes Greenpeace and the Climate Action Network! The latter is simply an association of ENGO (environmental non-government organizations) whereas Greenpeace lost or gave up their charitable status when being investigated by the CRA (Canada Revenue Agency).  The investigation also was reviewing others in the Strathmere Group including; the David Suzuki Foundation, Pembina Foundation, Environmental Defence and Equiterre whose co-founder was reputedly none other than our current Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault.  When the Justin Trudeau Liberal led party won the majority in 2015 one of the early things that happened was the investigation suddenly disappeared.

Accordingly, with the above in mind and the stature of some of those signatures on the Strathmere declaration having risen to places of influence within the bureaucracy of the Federal Government, a review of the charity filings seemed logical.  A look over the past five years of CRA charitable filings was therefore executed along with a review of the Grants and Contributions and the Federal Contracts websites.

What was Discovered:

CRA Filings:

1(a). According to the five years of CRA filings by the ten charities they reported having received $51,440,000 from the Federal Government, $14,985,000 from provincial governments and $677,000 from municipal governments. 

1(b). Those ten charities over the five years have also received $81,723,000 from other Canadian charities plus another $45,208,000 from Foreign parties with a portion of those donations also receiving tax receipts.

1(c). Collectively the ten charities received tax-receipted donations of $253,859,000 but two of the ten charities (World Wildlife Fund and Canadian Wildlife Foundation) received 60% ($152,018,000) of the foregoing with the other eight charities receiving the remaining 40%. Those donations saved the contributors approximately $190.4 million in taxes (75% of contributions) meaning the Federal government deficit increased with absolutely no benefit to ordinary Canadian citizens via improvements to the health care system, reducing poverty, etc. etc.

2. Federal Grants and Contracts:

Reviewing the Federal Grants and Contributions website those ten (10) charities have been granted $48,229.000 over the past five (5) years and via the Contracts website were awarded Federal Contacts of $1,826,000.

Summary:

Looking at just the effect on tax revenues, the ten charities comprising the Strathmere Group basically were responsible for consuming $257.6 million* of our potential and actual tax dollars over those five years.  Those ten ENGO are but a small portion of the active ENGO of whom most are charities and receive tax dollars either directly via grants or benefit from the tax deduction used by their contributors.  The Climate Action Network (a Strathmere Group member) has almost 150 members including such well known names as CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees). 

Other organizations such as the Canadian Environmental Network also have members and regional groups by provinces but the website GoodWork.ca goes well beyond the CAN or CEN by linking to various provincial organizations as well as Green Business & Environment Industry Associations. We should be confident that the hundreds of ENGO and renewable energy companies spread across the country are enjoying the benefits provided by all of the individuals and businesses whose tax dollars they receive.

The Strathmere Group merely highlights the waste of our tax dollars to achieve the “net-zero” target of emissions for Canada when we represent only 1.5% of global emissions. 

Destroying Canada’s economic wellbeing will not change the temperature!

*Forgone taxes $190.4 million plus Federal Grants of $51.4 million plus Provincial Grants of $15 million plus $700K of Municipal Grants = $257.6 million

Just Discovered: The Liberal Party of Canada Delivered an Additional $1.2 billion to SDTC

Mere days ago a post titled “Politicians Don’t Seem to Believe “money doesn’t grow on trees” included information about the Canada Foundation for Sustainable Development Technology (SDTC) noting it had received over $1.9 billion in Federal Government Grants.

As it turned out the data contained in the Federal, Grants and Contributions website had apparently not been updated as I discovered when searching under another name.  What was found in that search was the following notice and it popped up for two days.

“Sorry, we are down for maintenance / We are sorry, but this site is down for maintenance.”

The “maintenance” seems to have concluded so another search of the site for “Grants and Contributions” was made for: “Canada Foundation for Sustainable Development Technology” (SDTC) and it disclosed an additional $1,239,441,646 had been added bringing the total grants handed out to them to over $3.1 billion ($3,153,900,935)!  All of the grants (added or altered?) carried dates after the Liberal Party of Canada under PM Justin Trudeau had been elected.  The grants all noted the funds were to support action related to “climate change” or one of its derivatives!

So the selected bureaucrats involved in operating SDTC will surely be kept busy now doing their best to allocate the additional funds slated and not yet allocated (about $1.7 billion) based on their last annual report. Surely some of that will save us from their perceived apocalypse of “climate change”.

It sure appears the Liberal Party of Canada under Justin Trudeau are convinced money does indeed grow on trees and we taxpayers are the trees so are obligated to “drink the kool-aid” until we vote them out!

Following is the text from the prior article related to SDTC:

“Canada Foundation for Sustainable Development Technology now called Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC)**

One should wonder, why the name change since it’s creation in 2001 through a Special Act of Parliament when Jean Chrétien was the Prime Minister? Perhaps it was to suggest it was now an entity freed from political influence despite its dependence on tax dollars as its funding supports; its staff and management in their efforts to re-disperse what remains of the grants. In the latter case the funding granted to them since Justin Trudeau became Prime Minister has totalled over $1.9 billion ($1,914,459,289).

So, the question becomes; what have they done with those $1.9 billion of grants?  There is a pile of information in their annual report for the year ended March 31, 2022 suggesting they have awarded “contributions of $1,450 million, of which $1,171 million has been disbursed since inception.“  When they make announcements about their chosen investments they issue press releases and as an example one of their recent ones from February 17, 2023 stated; “an investment of $68.2million toward       17 innovative Canadian companies.“  The release included a statement from François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry:

“We congratulate all the cleantech entrepreneurs who are turning vision into reality with help from SDTC investments. The Government of Canada stands shoulder to shoulder with these groundbreaking companies as they drive innovation, make their mark as international leaders in clean technology and propel us to a cleaner Canada and a net-zero carbon emissions world.“

What is very unclear about SDTC is each announcement about their handouts claim; they are “an investment” but SDTC’s financial statements show NO investments related to the “dollars” handed out. That seems strange as private investors having been sold on a concept to invest, would require either payback of the funds with interest, or allocation of share purchases at a negotiated price in the company, should it advance to the point where it could become publicly listed on a stock exchange. What that infers is that the money handed out is simply tax dollars that may or may not create a successful company with no future benefit to us taxpayers who provided the funding to create that success!”

Politicians Don’t Seem to Believe “money doesn’t grow on trees”

Politicians Don’t Seem to Believe “money doesn’t grow on trees”

The foregoing expression is one many of us heard from our parents when we were young and went shopping with them and when in the store, asked them to buy something we wanted. Looking at recent happenings here in Canada it appears our elected politicians were successful during their early years getting whatever they asked for from their parents based on how they are now, literally, throwing our tax dollars away as long as you utter the words embodying anything associated with “climate change” or “net-zero”!

Curiosity piqued, a visit to the Federal Government’s “Grants and Contributions” website led to a search using words connected with the push to reach “net-zero” without looking for a specific beneficiary of the Grant(s).  The chart* below, indicates search terms used and how many hits, ie, grants were generated for each word.

No doubt there is some duplication as some grants may include a few of those “chart” words, such as climate change, emissions and net-zero, etc. Despite the potential duplication the money handed out to save Canada from “climate change” is billions and billions of our tax dollars. They do the foregoing while neglecting to improve basic things like, health care, education, criminal law, our military, energy needs, etc. etc. where our tax dollars should rightly be directed.

The recent announcement by the Federal and Provincial governments and the $13.5 billion tax dollars (it will cost much more then that) they are gifting to VW to build a battery plant in Ontario was jointly made to sound  like a wonderful gift and create 3,000 jobs. Not included in the $13.5 billion were estimates of the infrastructure costs it will require which will, again, be our tax dollars.  As it signals; it is a prime example of exactly how our monies are wasted on anything associated with the reputed catastrophic evidence associated with the push to reduce our emissions to save the world.

Just to emphasize how far we have descended into this trench with the push for net-zero it is interesting to look at just one of the Federal Government’s “not-for-profit” creations!

Canada Foundation for Sustainable Development Technology now called Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC)**

One should wonder, why the name change since it’s creation in 2001 through a Special Act of Parliament when Jean Chrétien was the Prime Minister? Perhaps it was to suggest it was now an entity freed from political influence despite its dependence on tax dollars as its funding supports; its staff and management in their efforts to re-disperse what remains of the grants. In the latter case the funding granted to them since Justin Trudeau became Prime Minister has totalled over $1.9 billion ($1,914,459,289).

So, the question becomes; what have they done with those $1.9 billion of grants?  There is a pile of information in their annual report for the year ended March 31, 2022 suggesting they have awarded “contributions of $1,450 million, of which $1,171 million has been disbursed since inception.“  When they make announcements about their chosen investments they issue press releases and as an example one of their recent ones from February 17, 2023 stated; “an investment of $68.2million toward       17 innovative Canadian companies.“  The release included a statement from François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry:

“We congratulate all the cleantech entrepreneurs who are turning vision into reality with help from SDTC investments. The Government of Canada stands shoulder to shoulder with these groundbreaking companies as they drive innovation, make their mark as international leaders in clean technology and propel us to a cleaner Canada and a net-zero carbon emissions world.“

What is very unclear about SDTC is each announcement about their handouts claim; they are “an investment” but SDTC’s financial statements show NO investments related to the “dollars” handed out. That seems strange as private investors having been sold on a concept to invest, would require either payback of the funds with interest, or allocation of share purchases at a negotiated price in the company, should it advance to the point where it could become publicly listed on a stock exchange. What that infers is that the money handed out is simply tax dollars that may or may not create a successful company with no future benefit to us taxpayers who provided the funding to create that success!

Another example of the foregoing becomes obvious in a Federal Government announcement back on July 31, 2021 in a Press Release when they handed $400 million dollars to  “ArcelorMittal Dofasco” for “adoption of innovative low-carbon technology “.  The release stated: “Today, the Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, together with the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, and the Honourable Filomena Tassi, Minister of Labour, announced a federal investment of $400 million in ArcelorMittal Dofasco G.P., Canada’s largest producer of flat-rolled steel. This investment will support a $1.765-billion project to convert the steel production process and phase out coal-fired steelmaking at its facilities in Hamilton, Ontario.“  It seems clear this “investment” was a grant meaning there is no anticipated return to us taxpayers as Dofasco will simply use the funds to covert the steel process “toward Canada’s achieving its climate goals, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions“. 

While the above highlights only two examples of the handouts of our politicians it clearly demonstrates their use of inappropriate nouns when passing out tax dollars.  Handing out our hard-earned taxes when associated with their objectives of a net-zero economy should not be defined as investments!

They are of the bent who obviously appear to believe that “money does indeed grow on trees”!

*Grant Search Chart

**SDTC Spider Web (design your own)

Looking Back at Critical Thought When Ontario’s Liberal Party Were Ruining the Energy Sector

Back in April 2018, Vic Fedeli, who, at that time, was Interim Leader of the Ontario PC Party wrote a 130 page document titled: “Focus on Finance, A Look Into Ontario’s Finances”.  Needless to say his review had much to say about the mess of the electricity sector from the privatization of Hydro One to the Fair Hydro Plan. Naturally it dwelled on how the Liberal governing party had driven up electricity prices backing it up with reports from both the Ontario Auditor General as well as the FAO (Financial Accountability Office).

At that time Ontarians will remember both residential and business rates had climbed extensively during the Liberal reign with residential rates having jumped over 100% (74% from just generation costs) and companies such as Maple Leaf Foods; whom he quotes in the report with a Sr. VP stating: “our electricity price increased by 18% in 2016 … I think anyone would agree that 18% is a large increase.” He added, “If we had operated in Manitoba instead of Ontario it would have been a 65% saving on our electricity bill.“

MPP Fedeli also had a lot to say about the “Fair Hydro Plan” introduced by the Wynne led government noting:  “there are four major components: refinance the Global Adjustment (GA), adding an additional accumulated debt of about $28 billion; enhance consumer rebates, at a cost of $905 million, plus the $1 billion required from the tax base to pay for the 8% HST rebate; lower the Industrial Conservation Initiative threshold, with the cost to the ratepayers yet to be calculated; and find efficiencies in the market, to save at least $200 million per year, starting in 2021. As outlined earlier, the government has co-opted OPG into their scheme, so these liabilities don’t show up on the province’s books. This is inappropriate and risky for OPG.“

Needless to say MPP Fedeli not only criticized the actions of the OLP (Ontario Liberal Party) on the energy sector but all other aspects including those with fiscal implications!   Following are a few key examples contained in his Focus on Finance report with current updates.

Debt to GDP

Then: MPP Fedeli Report: “Ontario’s debt-to-GDP is up by half a percent, from 37.1% to 37.6% this year.”

Now: From the 2023 Budget: 

It appears the Debt-to-GDP ratio has increased to 41.4% since the Ford Government came to power.

Net Debt

Then: MPP Fedeli Report: “In 2016-17, Ontario’s net debt reached $302 billion, or approximately $21,500 per Ontarian.“

Now: From the 2023 Budget: Net Debt Interim 2022–23 $395,785 (hundreds of million or $396 billion). So the current Net Debt is approximately $94 Billion higher then 2016-17 which represents an increase of 31% in those six years or about $27,200 per Ontarian; an increase of 26.5%!

Budget Spending

Then: MPP Fedeli Report: “Since 2003, the current government has doubled spending from $71 billion to $141 billion.“

Now: From the 2023 Budget: 2023 Budget Total Expense Outlook $202,572 (hundreds of million or $203 billion) an increase of $62 billion or 44%!

Energy Critic

MPP Fedeli when first elected to Ontario’s parliament was named as the energy critic and frequently plied yours truly with questions and sought information/perspectives related to the electricity sector which I was happy to provide. The Focus on Finance report contained a reference and material related to an article I had written in late March 2017 titled: “Found! Where the Wynne government spent $36 billion!“ posted on my blog.

Fedeli started off the section with the details from my article with the following:  “What did $50 billion get us? Recall the Premier stated the government spent $50 billion on the cost of the rebuild. But her own Energy Minister issued a news release claiming Ontario had “invested more than $35 billion” in new and refurbished generation. So, between them, their talking points differed. My retired banker friend and frequent National Post energy columnist Parker Gallant beat me to the punch and has created a comprehensive list. His findings are here:“!  

He went on to highlight my findings stating: “This is indeed shy of the $50 billion the Premier says was spent, but the number lines up with the Energy Minister’s claim. Nonetheless, this proves that the bulk of the money did not go towards “the cost of the rebuild.” It went to intermittent and unreliable wind and solar projects (like the AG said it did), which are unable to deliver generation when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun’s not shining. The second largest category created no generation, nor improved transmission, nor reduced blackouts or brownouts.“ My estimates came to over $36 billion and included several spending categories most of which simply increased our electricity costs and as he noted most of the costs went to “deliver generation when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun’s not shining”.

While I appreciated MPP Fedeli referencing me as his “retired banker friend” at the time I would note since the Ford led OPC Party gained a majority he and others including our local MPP Todd Smith, Minister of Energy no longer call me for input and will not respond to my calls or e-mails much like those who were in the McGuinty or Wynne led governments when they were in power! 

As noted above, in respect to some of the macro details MPP Fedeli noted in his 2018 report one of the issues not mentioned is any reference to either the costs of provincial employment or the number of provincial employees appearing on the notorious “Sunshine List”! 

Sunshine List:

2018: A search disclosed back in 2018 before the Ford led government won the election there were 151,400 employees who made the list collectively earning $19.3 billion or an average of $127.5K per employee.

2022: The list for 2022 was recently released and it disclosed there were now 266.900 provincial employees who made the Sunshine List and their collective costs to us taxpayers was $$33.3 billion which works out to $124.5K per employee.

Conclusion:

It appears we can give the Ford government some credit (minor) for having reduced the provincial employee’s annual average earnings but the impact on increasing the number of employees earning over $100K per year increased by over 76%.  Adding that 76% to the number of employees earning over $100K in just four years obviously has had a negative affect on Ontario taxpayers.

Reflecting on the above simply confirms the Ford led government has done an incredibly bad job at managing Ontario’s economy even considering the Covid 19 costs over the two years!

Further, Ontario has nothing to show of any beneficial change made in managing the electricity portfolio! Taxpayers now have to absorb in excess of $6.5 billion annually associated with the ongoing costs of the $36 billion identified in 2018 as being wasted by the former Liberal government.

The waste continues!