It’s Monday and I don’t have a lot of time to squeeze out a blog post today. What spare time I have will be spent sending off final emails or making phone calls to senators in Ottawa who are starting debate on Bill C311, the Climate Accountability Act, tomorrow. If passed into law, the Climate Change Accountability Act will set science based emissions reductions, require the government to produce five year target plans, establish independent reviews, and punish polluters who break regulations. It will also position Canada as a global leader in the transition to a low carbon economy. It’s taken years to get here, and, if passed, will give Canada a wonderful opportunity to make up for our embarrassing performance on climate change up to now. If the bill is voted down those senators who oppose it are disregarding the will of the elected Parliament, and doing the bidding of the Chamber of Commerce and Big Oil. To find out how to contact the Senators yourself, go to September 20th’s posting by Cheryl McNamara, “Climate Crunch: Canada’s Unelected Senators Under Pressure From the Chamber of Commerce to Vote Against Clean Energy Bill”.
Meanwhile, I’m not the only one in the family who is busy these days. My husband spent time this weekend to begin installation of a 7 KiloWatt solar panel system that will feed into the grid as part of Ontario’s new microFIT program. This is a process that started last February when Mark filled out the application, and gathered momentum when he received the approval in June. We’ve had the panels sitting in our garage since the end of July, waiting until he has the time and information to install them himself. That has been the most difficult parts of this experience, as there is no one in or close to our community that has the expertise to install them. Mark has been in regular contact with the company in Southern Ontario that he purchased the panels from, but that hasn’t always been all that helpful. Luckily before he became a family physician he worked in construction for several years, and, unlike some do-it-yourselfers, actually knows what he’s doing when it comes to sorting out difficult problems.
I promise to give more of the installation details as the project unfolds. In the meantime, here are some pictures from this weekend’s work. Unfortunately it was stalled when Mark found that the stainless steel screws and nuts that he needs to install the aluminium rails (the next step) weren’t sent with them, and he couldn’t buy replacements on a Saturday locally.
More links:
How To Contact Senators re: Bill C311, The Climate Accountability Act
Climate Crunch: Canada’s Unelected Senators Under Pressure From Canadian Chamber of Commerce To Vote Against Clean Energy Future.
