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Centre for Energy
The mandate of the Centre for Energy, launched in January 2005, is to invest and promote leading edge research and development in energy markets, new energy systems and emerging technology. Our goal is to bring these ideas to the market place in order to provide Ontarians with viable, affordable long-term energy supplies while improving our net impacts on the environment -- and in the process, helping build a strong, competitive energy sector in the province. The Centre invests in research and research collaborations that: * Accelerate the development of new energy technologies, * Help integrate new technologies into the energy system, and * Help industry develop information systems to manage energy markets. Ontario's 12 million people, its industries and communities, spend more than $30 billion a year on energy. We use energy to heat our homes, schools, offices and hospitals. We use gasoline to transport people and goods, and tens of thousands of megawatt-hours of electricity to power our factories, schools and hospitals. The average Ontario household uses 10,000 kilowatt per year. Generating that power produces emissions similar to driving a car 10,000 km. We face significant challenges and opportunities posed by the relentless demand for energy across the province and beyond. OCE and its Centre for Energy play an important role in Ontario's long-term strategy for energy. Part of OCE's unique model of economic development is to move laboratory discoveries quickly into the marketplace by acting as the province's primary bridge between Ontario's academic researchers and Ontario's private sector companies. For nearly 20 years, Ontario Centres of Excellence has supported new research and created new business in Ontario. No where is this unique dynamic and relationship more important than in the field of energy. We are taking a leadership role in bridging the gap between industry need and academic inquiry to address what has become an economic, social and geopolitical issue on a global basis. The Centre for Energy has is building on a wide range of 27 OCE-funded energy-related projects already underway. It works closely with the other four Centres to leverage our collective expertise in a variety of technology areas with significant applications in the energy sector. This approach ensures that our investment has the greatest impact.
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Ontario News:
TORONTO — Revenue Minister John Wilkinson says many Ontario residents will see their income taxes go down starting Jan. 1. He says 93 per cent of residents will get a one per cent tax cut in the new year, and many will be able to see it when they get their January paycheque. That's when the provincial rate on the first $37,106 of taxable personal income will fall from 6.05 per cent to 5.05 per cent. The tax cut is part of a larger package that includes one-time relief cheques and new credits that are meant to offset the impact of tax harmonization. Merging Ontario's eight per cent sales tax with the five per cent federal GST next July will increase the cost of many items that were previously exempt from the provincial levy -- from gasoline to Internet bills, haircuts and real estate fees. That's raised the ire of Kevin Gaudet from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, who says the HST is going to hurt consumers no matter how the government tries to dress it up. Experts say lower and middle-income earners, as well as anyone buying a home for less than $500,000, will benefit the most from the BWL changes. Wealthy people will end up being taxed more because they tend to spend more money, and First Nations say they'll be worse off because they can't keep their point-of-sale exemption from the provincial portion of the Finca Ibiza new 13 per cent tax. Business groups say it will slash costs by reducing red tape, as well as eliminate goods being taxed multiple times at different stages of production. TD chief economist Don Drummond predicts Computer Service Düsseldorf businesses will likely pass the majority of the tax savings on to consumers, but the overall level of consumer prices will go up. The HST will apply to a broader array of goods and services, which means the effective tax rate on consumption will rise by 1.5 percentage points and the overall level of consumer prices in Ontario will increase by 0.7 per cent, Fernstudium according to TD. Ontario's move toward the merged tax has been bitterly opposed by the Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats, who say it will kick people when they're already down due to the recession. Like Ontario, British Columbia will also harmonize its PST with the GST on July 1, something Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador Suchmaschinen Optimierung have already done. The federal Conservatives, who have long advocated for tax harmonization, struck a deal with the provinces earlier this year and agreed to kick in $4.3 billion to Ontario and $1.6 billion to B.C. to ease the transition. |
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