RELEASE

For Release: Immediate
December 14, 2006

Wind Power and Renewable Energy production left to twist in the wind under Harper government

Ottawa - The minority Conservative government's failure to deliver any support toward wind and renewable energy production in Canada demonstrates a clear lack of commitment to our environment and lack of vision for the energy future of this country," said Natural Resources Critic Roy Cullen today.

"Since the Harper government was elected nearly a year ago, not one new cent of federal funding has been put toward wind power production in this country," said Mr. Cullen. "Instead, funding has been frozen; and recently we discovered this government actually gutted a renewable power initiative launched by the Liberal government last year."

"There is no credible reason that justifies the Harper government's inaction on this file. This year has been a year of opportunity lost-lost opportunity for the good of Canada's economy and the good of our environment has been thwarted. Mr. Harper needs to end this senseless delay now," he added.

Last week an Access to Information request revealed that the Conservative Party's 2006 budget actually cut $50 million allocated for the RPPI program. And to date, no funding has flowed from the Harper government for either of these clean energy programs.

By contrast, the previous Liberal government launched a Wind Power Production Incentive (WPPI) with a budget of $260 million over 15 years. Budget 2005 committed to a quadrupling of WPPI, and building on this successful model, it also allocated $97 million to create the Renewable Power Production Incentive (RPPI) to support the development of biomass, small hydro, tidal power, and other renewable energy sources.

Based on the experience of other countries, it is estimated that Canada could meet 20 per cent of its total energy needs with wind power, totalling 50,000 MW of wind energy capacity.

"Canada has the know-how and the natural conditions to reap the economic and environmental benefit of a burgeoning renewable energy sector," Mr. Cullen noted. "With the help of programs such as WPPI, in 2005 alone, wind power production doubled in this country."

Contact:

Office of the Honourable Roy Cullen
(613) 995-4702