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Thursday, January 15, 2015 - The IFP - H alton H ills - w w w .theifp.ca Page 7 Up to 40% heat can go out thru your chimney Let us show you how to save money ! Call us for a FREE Heating Solutions Assessment DON'T LET YOUR MONE Y GO UP IN SMOKE $ $$$ $$ $$ $$$ 905-877-3100 • your window & door professionals • 341 Guelph St., Unit 3 Georgetown 905.873.0236 www.buy-wise.ca info@buy-wise.ca • awarded readers choice 22 times • Visit our showroom • Truck Accessories • Upholstery • Heavy Equipment Glass •Window Tinting 354 Guelph Street, Georgetown 905-873-1655 We handle all insurance work. COMMENT The way we were For the love of the game, Ashgrove Hockey Stars in 1949. Images courtesy of Esquesing Historical Society, Text Heritage Halton Hills Pond hockey 'Our thanks go out to the Trillium Foundation for this generous support...' -- MPP Ted Arnott pg. 15 Simone Garland sent in this photo of an icy bath in the Credit River near Norval. Got a photo you want to share? Email cgamble@theifp.ca A CHILLY BATH From our readers 'Quote unquote' $2 billion doesn't seem like much to the Grits � ere's no question that a billion dollars is a lot of money. But it's such a big num- ber, it's di� cult for most of us to compre- hend. Here's one way to visualize a billion dollars: Imagine yourself in a big hall, standing alone on a stage. Imagine there are a thousand people in the hall. Imag- ine that each person you're looking at in this crowd is a millionaire, each with a net worth of a million dollars. Taken together, the combined net worth of this imaginary, large, and well-heeled group of people would be a billion dollars. � inking about it this way, it's easy to see that a billion dollars is indeed a lot of money. � is year, the provin- cial government plans to spend $118 billion of taxpayers' money, and $12.5 billion of borrowed money. But how much of that public money is being wasted? Each year, the report of the Auditor General of Ontario provides an authori- tative, non-partisan analysis of the mon- ey the government is wasting. � is year's massive report was dropped on MPPs' desks like a bomb- shell. In it, we learned the government's "smart meters" program has cost nearly $2 billion. "Under the initiative," the Auditor General wrote, "ratepayers were sup- posed to use less electricity during peak times." But what actually happened? "Peak demand reduction targets set by the Ministry of Energy have not been met, ratepayers have had signi� cant bill- ing concerns, and ratepayers are also paying signi� cantly more to support the expansion of power-generating capacity while also covering the cost of the imple- mentation of smart metering," the Audi- tor General concluded. In short, the smart meters have been a failure and the money spent on them has been wasted. To be fair, we are pay- ing for the smart meters on our electricity bills, which is separate from the Ontario Government's Consolidated Revenue Fund. But it's still public money, and subject to review by the Auditor General. In our parliamentary system of government, if $2 billion of public money is wasted, you'd expect that a cabinet minister would ac- cept responsibility for the boondoggle, and resign. To put $2 billion into perspective, it would easily pay for several new bridges and road improvements along the Con- necting Link roadways in Halton Hills and Centre Wellington, a new court house in Halton, a brand new hospital, the Hwy. 6 Morriston bypass, tra� c sig- nals in Guelph/Eramosa, and a sewage treatment system in Erin, with hundreds of millions of dollars to spare. But of course, no one took responsi- bility for the waste of $2 billion and re- signed their cabinet seat. � at's just not the way the Wynne government works. To them, it's just another day at the of- � ce. Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Ted Ar- nott welcomes your comments. He can be reached at 1-800-265-2366. His website address is www.tedarnottmpp.com. TED ARNOTT