Ontario needs a comprehensive energy conservation strategy developed with public participation to guide energy conservation activity and measure progress. This is one of the conclusions in a report tabled by Gord Miller, the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario (ECO), before the Ontario Legislature.

“The government’s approach to energy conservation appears uncoordinated
and improvised, with no clear plan,” warns Miller in the report, Annual
Energy Conservation Progress Report (2009, Vol. 1). “We are too focused
on electricity,” added Miller. “We need a strategy that addresses
conservation of all sources of energy. We already consume much more
energy for transportation than we do for electricity, and most future
growth in Ontario’s energy consumption is expected to come from the
transportation sector.”

In electricity, the one energy sector where Ontario had begun developing
a long-term plan, Miller notes that uncertainty prevails. The
development of the Integrated Power System Plan has been suspended, and
the role that it will play in guiding electricity conservation action is
not known. In the absence of an approved plan, the Ministry of Energy
and Infrastructure has set electricity conservation policy on an ad hoc
basis, with little opportunity for public input.

Responding to his newly assigned duty to review progress on energy
conservation, the Commissioner’s report lays out action needed if
Ontario is to build a meaningful and enduring culture of conservation in
the province.

WATCH GORD MILLER talk about the REPORT.

CLICK HERE for Environmental Commissioner of Ontario.