The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Thursday, M arch 26, 2015 - The IFP - H alton H ills - w w w .theifp.ca Page 7 Furnace Air Conditioning Gaslines Boilers Water Heaters Radiant Heating 905-877-3100 proud local dealer of Canadian made products .ca • 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 The Acton Fire Brigade is shown hard at work in this historical photo. Photo courtesy of Esquesing Historical Society Hard at work This photo was taken at Scottsdale farm the first week of March with the sun sparkling on the ice covered snow. Photo by Marcia Pennock. Got a photo you want to share? Email cgamble@theifp.ca A SPARKLING FARM From our readers Government proactive on climate change In 1996, the government of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien introduced significant tax breaks for the oil sands sector to help spur the growth of the Alberta oil sands. These tax breaks were introduced for in-situ oil sands projects (sub-surface mining that uses heat to bring bitumen to the surface), providing these in-situ projects with tax breaks previously only available to traditional oil sands projects (open-pit strip mining). These tax breaks came in the form of an accelerated capital cost allowance (ACCA) de- duction of 100 per cent, which allowed compa- nies to write off their en- tire capital investment in a single year, signifi- cantly reducing their corporate income taxes payable. Prior to 1996, in-situ oil sands projects could only write off 25 per cent of their cap- ital investment per year. Today, in-situ is the fastest grow- ing method of oil sands extraction and is almost equivalent in produc- tion to traditional open-pit projects. Out of the 170 billion barrels of re- coverable oil in oil sands deposits, approximately 80 per cent is recover- able through in-situ production. The remaining 20 per cent is re- coverable through open-pit mining. Between 1996 and 2002, the esti- mated cost of this tax break was $538 million. By 2007, this cost had increased to $300 million in that year alone. In an effort to combat climate change and reduce emissions, in 2007 Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced the phase-out of this ACCA tax break for both in-situ and open-pit oil sands projects by 2015. This year marks the first year in decades that this tax break - an indi- rect subsidy to the oil sands - is not available to oil sand companies. It is one of a number of steps that the government has taken toward re- ducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) in Canada. Other steps in- clude the phase-out of coal fired electrical gen- eration plants and the new strict passenger car and light truck fuel effi- ciency regulations that are expected to reduce fuel consumption by 50 per cent by 2025. As a result of gov- ernment actions, GHGs have declined five per cent since 2005, from 737Mt in 2005 to 699Mt in 2012. This is notable, especially con- sidering that from 1990 to 2005, to- tal emissions grew from 591Mt to 737Mt. While more needs to be done to meet the government's commitment to reduce GHGs by 17 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020, the phase-out of the ACCA for oil sands projects is an- other step toward meeting that com- mitment. If you have any questions or com- ments, please contact me at (866) 878-5556 or at michael.chong@parl. gc.ca -- Michael Chong is the MP for Wellington-Halton Hills MICHAEL CHONG Time to Move? Call Derek CallDerek.ca 905-877-8262 Derek Dunphy Sales Representative