I am happy to have the honour, on behalf of Sustainable Waterloo Region, of congratulating Catherine Fife on becoming the elected representative for the residents of the Kitchener-Waterloo riding. Ms. Fife was sworn in this morning as a Member of Provincial Parliament, joining other provincial and federal leaders in Waterloo Region including:
- Federally
- Harold Albrecht (Kitchener-Conestoga)
- Peter Braid (Kitchener-Waterloo)
- Gary Goodyear (Cambridge)
- Stephen Woodworth (Kitchener-Centre)
- Provincially
- John Milloy (Kitchener Centre)
- Michael Harris (Kitchener-Conestoga)
- Rob Leone (Cambridge)
In the lead-up to the October 6, 2011 Ontario Election, Sustainable Waterloo Region, in partnership with the David Suzuki Foundation, co-published a non-partisan expert review of the energy policies of leading provincial political parties, entitled Ontario’s Energy Future: A Climate Change Perspective, with the goal of informing the debate surrounding the province’s energy and climate future. The Record published an op-ed by our Executive Director, Mike Morrice, prior to the by-election in which Mike noted that: “Whereas last year Ontario’s party leaders debated the rising cost of electricity, smart meters and time-of-use billing, and the costs associated with the feed-in-tariff (FIT) programs offered through the Green Energy Act, in Thursday’s by-elections in Kitchener-Waterloo and Vaughan there has been almost no mention to date of energy policy. The energy supply issues debated last year remain unsolved.
Sustainable Waterloo Region now looks forward to the opportunity of working with Ms. Fife and her aforementioned colleagues in addressing these, and other important environmental issues, in a collaborative effort to create a more environmentally sustainable Waterloo Region.
-Sean