This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate

by Naomi Klein

The provision was an attempt to revive Ontario’s moribund manufacturing sector, which had long been centered on the Big Three U.S. automakers (Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors) and was, at that time, reeling from the near bankruptcy of General Motors and Chrysler. Compounding these challenges was the fact that Alberta’s tar sands oil boom had sent the Canadian dollar soaring, making Ontario a much costlier place to build anything.8 In the years that followed the announcement, Ontario’s efforts to get off coal were plagued by political blunders. Large natural gas and wind developers ran roughshod over local communities, while the government wasted hundreds of millions (at least) trying to clean up the unnecessary messes. Yet even with all these screwups, the core of the program was an undeniable success. By 2012, Ontario was the largest solar producer in Canada and by 2013, it had only one working coal-fired power plant left. The local content requirements—as the “buy local” and “hire local” provisions are called—were also proving to be a significant boost to the ailing manufacturing sector: by 2014, more than 31,000 jobs had been created and a wave of solar and wind manufacturers had set up shop.9