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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, D ec em be r 10 ,2 02 0 | 8 ABOUT US This newspaper, published every Thursday, is a division of the Metroland Media Group Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Torstar Corporation. The Metroland family of newspapers is comprised of more than 70 community publications across Ontario. This newspaper is a member of the National NewsMedia Council. Complainants are urged to bring their concerns to the attention of the news- paper and, if not satisfied, write The National NewsMedia Council, Suite 200, 890 Yonge St., Toronto, ON M4W 2H2. Phone: 416-340-1981 Web: www.mediacouncil.ca insidehalton@metroland.com facebook.com/OakvilleBeav @OakvilleBeaver WHO WE ARE VP, Regional Publisher Kelly Montague Regional General Manager Jason Pehora Regional Managing Editor Catherine O'Hara Managing Editor Karen Miceli Director of Distribution Charlene Hall Circulation Manager Kim Mossman Director of Production Mark Dills Regional Production Manager Manny Garcia Directors of Advertising Cindi Campbell and Ryan Maraj CONTACT US Oakville Beaver 901 Guelph Line Burlington, ON L7R 3N8 Phone: 905-845-3824 Classifieds: 1-800-263-6480 Advertising: 289-293-0620 Delivery For all delivery inquiries, please e-mail kmossman@metroland.com or call 905-631-6095. Letters to the editor Send letters to insidehalton@metroland.com. All letters must be fewer than 320 words and include your name and telephone number for verification purposes. We reserve the right to edit, condense or reject letters. Published letters will appear in print and/or online at insidehalton.com OPINION TO LEARN HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR OWN CONTENT VISIT INSIDEHALTON.COM The Ontario govern- ment is working diligently to strengthen our environ- ment. The province has re- leased a comprehensive Made-in-Ontario Environ- ment Plan that takes delib- erate steps to protect our air, land and water, reduce litter and waste and lower greenhouse gas emissions. A significant focus of the plan is to transition the costs away from taxpayers to the manufactures and polluters. The government is be- ing consulted on imple- menting key commitments in the Environment Plan with a new expert advisory panel on climate change. Ontario has taken bold steps to reduce carbon emissions. The government has created an emissions per- formance standard that has received acceptance from the federal govern- ment. This program sets the standards for lowering emissions that facilities are required to meet. The more emissions the facility reduces, the less they have to pay for their pollution, and they can gain credits to sell or trade if they surpass the stan- dard. Another crucial initia- tive the Ontario govern- ment has recently imple- mented to reduce green- house gases is requiring renewable content in regu- lar-grade gasoline to in- crease from 10 per cent to 15 per cent by 2030. This will result in the equivalent of taking 300,000 cars off the road ev- ery year. Our water resources are also being protected. Onta- rio is investing $7.47 mil- lion to support 65 projects to improve Great Lakes. Moreover, an investment of $375,000 is being made to collect plastic waste from marinas using plastic-cap- ture technology. Additionally, in the province's last budget, $3.7 billion in green bonds were issued to help finance pub- lic transit initiatives, ex- treme weather resiliency infrastructure, and energy efficiency and conserva- tion projects. Ontario re- mains the largest issuer of green bonds in all of Cana- da. Importantly, to support natural and green spaces, the government is reinvest- ing in the Ontario Commu- nity Environment Fund to support projects that im- prove the environment, in- cluding dedicated funding for tree planting. Additionally, the gov- ernment continued fund- ing for the Greenbelt Foun- dation through a $12-mil- lion agreement over three years to protect and restore the Greenbelt's environ- ment and integrity. There is more work ahead, but the foundation to protect our environment has been laid. Stephen Crawford is the MPP for Oakville. He can be reached at ste- phen.crawford- co@pc.ola.org. WORKING TO PROTECT OUR ENVIRONMENT BOLD STEPS BEING TAKEN TO REDUCE OUR CARBON FOOTPRINT, WRITES STEPHEN CRAWFORD Firms that join the cov- eted Top 10 largest compa- nies by market capitaliza- tion in the United States of- ten do so because of tre- mendous growth. Since 1927, for the three years prior to joining the Top 10 largest market capi- talization companies, its stock values increased by nearly 25 per cent more per year than the general stock market. Those companies get a lot of press coverage and are the envy of the business community. Shareholders are happy, too. How did the stock per- form during the next three years? Not very well. During the next three years, those stocks outperformed the market by less than one per cent. After five years, those stocks underperformed the market by one per cent, and after 10 years stock market underperformance was slightly higher. This is measured by the Fama/ French Total US Market Research Index. The technology giant Intel had a similar stock market performance. Dur- ing the 10 years prior to as- cending to the Top 10, its stock beat the underlying market by 29 per cent an- nually. The following 10 years, Intel stock underper- formed the market by near- ly six per cent annually. The same thing hap- pened with Google. Five years after joining the Top 10, its stock value increases were about half of what it had been for the five years prior to joining the Top 10. Peter Watson, MBA, CFP®, R.F.P., CIM®, FCSI, of Watson Invest- ments offers a weekly fi- nancial planning column, 'Dollars & Sense'. He can be contacted through www.watsoninvestment- s.com. SHOULD YOU INVEST IN COMPANIES WITH PHENOMENAL GROWTH? STUDY SHOWS SHORT-TERM STOCK APPRECIATION HAS NOT BEEN SUSTAINABLE, WRITES PETER WATSON PETER WATSON Column A snowy owl visits Bronte Harbour. Do you have a great local photo you'd like to share? Send it to sleblanc@metroland.com, along with a brief description. Vic Turczynski photo SNAPSHOT STEPHEN CRAWFORD Column SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER AT INSIDEHALTON.COM