Going green hurts the poor

Impose cap-and-trade mandates and taxes, and government drives up energy prices, kills jobs and prolongs or increases poverty. Reduce overall government tax revenues, in a shriveling, energy-starved economy that sends jobs overseas and Ottawa will have to short-change welfare programs that keep families warm in Canada's new "sustainable" economy.

In the United States, when government simultaneously bans drilling and increases demand for "clean" natural gas, it drives up prices and hammers poor families. Having to choose between heating and eating is the definition of poverty.

The Green Shift may create a few hundred thousand green-collar Canadian jobs, but its expensive, intermittent energy will kill off millions of oil, tourism, manufacturing, housing, transportation and agricultural jobs -- and a lot of my northern neighbours will freeze during the long, dark and cold Canadian winter.