Politics and money

When she was running for her party’s leadership four years ago, Kathleen Wynne was the only candidate, of the seven running for the job, who understood the issues at stake at Ostrander Point. Four candidates flat-out refused to answer my questions, three offered prepared generic statements about how renewable energy was critical to Ontario’s future. Kathleen Wynne called me back.

She knew there were real concerns about the impact of industrial wind turbines and the health and well-being of those living nearby. She knew the issues raised by conservation groups about the threat these machines posed to the natural life in and around Ostrander Point. She said municipal leaders needed to play a greater role in the development of renewable energy in their communities.

She knew.

I thought it might be enough. Armed with this insight I—and many other Ontarians— believed that things would be done differently, especially on the energy file. After all, she had felt the fury of taxpayers over the gas plants fiasco. That scalding was enough, surely, to coax a political animal to change course.

It seems not.

Wynne, as Premier, is just as single-minded and calculating as her predecessor in pursuiing the votes that come with appearing to be green. She knows intermittent energy sources don’t work and drive electricity bills higher. She knows industrial wind turbines kill birds, bats and disrupt natural habitats. She knows some folks suffer in their vicinity. She knows they don’t create meaningful employment. She knows all this, yet it makes no difference.

It isn’t hypocrisy, however, tripping up Kathleen Wynne before us now. It is old-fashioned corruption doing that.

Wynne, it turns out, has installed cashiers outside the Premier’s office and those of her cabinet ministers’ doors to collect donations to her Liberal party. She has set quotas detailing just how much each is expected to extract from corporate and union donors operating in sectors they regulate. Political parties need money, she said in January.

Perhaps, but Wynne has turned governing into a money machine. Government business, under Wynne’s watch, is done on a pay-to-play basis. If you want access to the decision-makers in the Ontario government— you pay for it. It is that simple. That bald. That corrupt.

Just weeks ago, she defended the grubby practice. She assured voters that yes, she and her cabinet ministers were selling access to corporations and unions, but not to worry as those discussions had no effect on policy-making. Besides it was all legal.

I suspect even her staunchest supporters extracted little comfort from this explanation.

But then it was revealed that seven industrial wind energy firms had contributed $255,042 to the Liberal party in recent years. All seven were awarded 20-year power purchase agreements last month—each gaining a huge financial windfall. Three other companies on the province’s qualified list failed to make a contribution to the party. They got nothing.

The message was clear enough—you want to do business in Ontario, you pay the Liberal party.

Now, dear reader, spare a moment’s sympathy for the poor sods at Innergex, Scotian Windfields and Enerfin who didn’t know the rules. Consider the grilling those knuckle-headed project managers are getting from their bosses right now— their colleagues snickering as they pass by them in corporate hallways. If only for a gift of few thousand dollars to the Liberal party.

They won’t get fooled again.

Kathleen Wynne says she has seen the light. She is better now. She will take steps immediately to stop the blatant access-buying and she will tighten up fundraising rules in general. That is what she is telling Ontarians. And perhaps, on some level, she even believes in her own conversion.

But corporate and union leaders know better. They know that once a government crosses the moral and ethical line that allows it to put its policies up for sale— they will always be for sale.

So instead of blatantly marketing access to Wynne’s decision-making table, Liberal party fundraising efforts will slip underground, out of sight.

No other industrial wind energy promoter will get caught the way Innergex, Enerfin and Scotian Windfields did. They will find another way to show their appreciation to Kathleen Wynne’s party. They have learned their lesson.

For those wondering about wpd Canada’s generosity toward the Liberal party—the developer has contributed $14,700 since 2011.

Political parties need money.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca