COURTESY DAVID LUI // Chris Bentley, Ontario's Minister of Energy (center) met with Humber students, graduates, and faculty at the college's Sustainable Energy and Building Technology facility to talk about the province's clean energy future.
By Alexandra Gundy
Chris Bentley, Ontario’s Minister of Energy, visited Humber Thursday morning to tour the college’s Sustainable Energy and Building Technology facility and speak with students about the province’s clean energy future.
Bentley toured the lab with Kerry Johnston, academic manager for Humber’s Sustainable Energy and Building Technology program. The minister also spoke one-on-one with students in the program before addressing a crowd that included former graduates and faculty.
“Clean green energy creates jobs for the future,” Bentley said. “Training our students today for the high-skilled jobs of tomorrow will ensure good jobs for our families, a stronger economy and cleaner air for future generations.”
The Ontario Liberal Government’s Green Energy Act has come under fire in light of the recent report released by the Auditor General; however Bentley said that a commitment to sustainable building technology is increasingly important. The report suggests that the Liberal government’s focus on fast-tracking to green energy will cost Ontario electricity ratepayers more money in the long run.
“Leadership always has its costs, and there are many who would like to continue doing things the old way,” Bentley said. “Many would like to burn coal – that’s the cheapest thing to do. But coal is not the way of the future. The world is going greener to a greater extent than ever before, and we want to be leaders not followers, because there are no jobs for followers.”
The Liberal Government’s Green Energy Act was projected to support over 50,000 jobs, about 40,000 of which were expected to pertain to renewable energy. The report from the Audio General said that about 30,000 of these jobs are likely to be construction jobs lasting from one to three years.
John Davies, Humber’s president, said that Ontario’s investments in green energy technology are absolutely necessary, no matter what political issues are at hand.
“It’s not the easiest thing to do because there are some large scale investments that need to take place, but the province is taking those risks, and they will absolutely pay off,” Davies said. “This will bring jobs for people graduating from Humber.”
Jodi Janwin, a recent graduate of the program, now works at Provident Energy Management Inc., a private energy consulting firm in Toronto.
“I was initially drawn to the program because of the energy efficiency and conservation in green building,” Janwin said. “I now get to help with the energy efficiency in buildings in Toronto. I get to promote the technology that I learned in this program, which has been a wonderful experience.”