Dear Editor:
I was unable to attend the recent climate change town hall in North Vancouver hosted by MP Jonathan Wilkinson, but I do wish to comment on this important topic.
A friend in Bellingham, Wash., is having solar panels installed on the roof of his house this summer at a cost of approximately US $17,000. He will then be eligible for a 30 per cent rebate from the U.S. government. Additionally, the electric company will be paying him 50 cents per kWh for the electricity he sends to the grid, a rate about 10 times higher than the current cost of electricity. His US $17,000 investment will be paid off in about eight years.
Sadly, no such incentives exist in Canada, where oil and gas companies still receive billions of dollars in subsidies through unfair tax policy and obscenely low royalty payments.
Meanwhile, British Columbia is spending close to $9 billion on the Site C dam that we do not need, while destroying agricultural lands that are more important than ever with global warming.
Imagine instead providing $9 billion in incentives to British Columbians to invest in solar power, paid for by ending the unjust support the fossil fuel industries have enjoyed for more than a century.
Real solutions to global warming require dramatic changes to our ways of thinking and acting.
Ken Timewell
North Vancouver
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