Monthly Archives: June 2010

London Ontario – the Forest City – True or False ?

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In a tree census in London Ontario carried out over the last 2 years it was found that there were 4.2 million trees, approximately 12 trees for each member of the population.

This sounds extremely healthy, however the problem seems to be that these trees are not in areas that are truly regarded as woodland.

London has 27.4% leaf cover which is considerably higher than other major cities including Toronto which is only 19.9%.

The  UFORE report estimates the value of London’s trees at approximately $1.5 billion.

Programs like Scout Trees have a considerable impact on these numbers as in London they plant approximately 5,000 new trees each year, these come from public donations, and make the scouts the single biggest charitable contributor to new trees in London every year.

London Ontario set to become a green jobs centre ?

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It was announced this weekend that London Ontario maybe about to gain 300 new green jobs and that this may not be the only ones.

Canasia Power Corp., a Toronto-based developer of green energy projects, is scouting London for sites to locate a 125,000-square-foot manufacturing plant to churn out solar panel parts early next year, Ashok Dhillon, its chief executive, confirmed Friday.

The target market for these solar panels would be India with productions starting as early as 2011.

The article also reports that Samsung is also in talks  with the London Economic Development Corp. along with a group of other prime name employers. Watch this space and we’ll keep you updated on any further news of Canadian Green jobs.

Ontario Environmental Fee

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This is the first in a series of posts about Dalton McGuinty, affectionatally known as the pointy headed liar or Premier Pinocchio, and his approach to taxes under the disguise of envronmental fees. I say taxes, as his fees and approach to the environment never actually help the environment they just put extra taxes into the Ontario government’s coffers.

The first fee I want to discuss in the Ontario environmental fee on electrical items. This fee is disguised as a disposal fee for when the item is disposed of. Reports would also indicate that this fee has been subject to GST and will therefore be subject to the new Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) from July 1st 2010.

The fee is added to each of the following at the rate shown.

  • Desktop Computers = $13.44
  • Portable Computers = $2.14
  • Computer Peripherals = $0.32
  • Mice = $0.32
  • Keyboards = $0.32
  • Single Hard drives = $0.32
  • Optical Drives = $0.32
  • Monitors = $12.03
  • Televisions = $10.07
  • 18″ screen and smaller = $10.07
  • 19″ to 29″ screen = $10.07 3
  • 30″ to 45″ screen = $10.07
  • 46″ screen and larger = $10.07
  • Printing Devices = $5.05

These fees appear relatively small, but it is the principal. Do these fees help keep our environment Green, No of course they don’t, and not only that when you finally finish with the item, particularly a larger item you will likely find your city council will again charge you a disposal fee when you take the item to be disposed of.

So Dalton McGuinty, once again you lied about no new taxes and you hid behind the environment to collect this one.

Today the frog is red with rage as the Premier uses the environment to enforce a tax on electrical items.

The Green Wedding

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I was surfing around earlier today and came across a very interesting idea that’s helps the environment, by saving on paper, fuel to deliver the paper and much more.

It’s an idea called the Personal Wedding Site. The whole idea behind this is, they will document your wedding and it’s build up online. I hear you say but how is that green, well the whole idea is the invitation response, how to get there, registry info etc. etc. is all held online.

So no paper is needed, no need to mail stuff back and forth, changes are posted on-line and best of all so are the pictures.

Oh and I almost forgot, these guys claim that suppliers to you like to give discounts in return for you posting them on your site. So that’s green as well !!!!!

Great Idea Personal Wedding Sites you’ve made the frog very happy going into the weekend. Keep up the green work.

The Oil Disaster in The Gulf

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April 20th 2010 will go down in history as one of the biggest environmental disasters in US history, and after yet another unsuccessful attempts to stem the flow of oil into the Gulf it is time that BP and the US Government step up to the plate and work together to avoid this disaster getting any worse.

The cleanup needs to begin now before eco systems in the surrounding areas are totally destroyed. BP has now stated that it could be August before the relief well is complete and the spill is contained.

On the news today CNN announced that BP had contributed 25 million dollars to advertising for businesses on Florida’s west coast, announcing that the oil had not reached their beaches and that they were open for business. This is a very nice gesture on their part, but lets get down to business and get this spill cleaned up.

Right now the frog is not happy so lets all voice our opinions and get the necessary people to stand up and be counted.