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The following letter was submitted to selected MPPs and the Feed-in-Tarriff review committee. MCCO encourages its constituency to adapt this letter and send to their local MPPs to encourage greater commitment to renewable energy. Environmental Defence has created an easy tool for doing so, found here. Please consider inserting our letter contents to their pre-made letter.

We also encourage our supporters to fill out the FIT Review Survey and to learn more by visiting the Feed-in-Tariff website and the review section of Ontario Sustainable Energy Association (OSEA) website as well as the Creation Care Crossroads blog. Submissions are due by December 14, 2011.

Dear Hon. Dalton McGuinty,

Mennonite Central Committee Ontario (MCCO) is committed to caring for God’s creation while meeting basic human needs and working for peace and justice.

Based on this commitment, we have developed resources, in partnership with Faith and the Common Good, to help our churches participate in the Feed-in-Tariff program. Several churches have installed solar energy on their properties, generating revenue for the life-giving work of their congregations and keeping clean energy on the forefront of their members’ minds. As recent winners of 10kW of solar panels through the Watts Next contest, MCCO is excited to join these early adopters in making a commitment to clean energy.

During the FIT review, we encourage policy-makers to focus on grassroots participation, with particular emphasis on programs for non-profits, faith-communities, and social housing. When these communities are able to participate in the FIT program, the benefits of renewable energy are distributed to all socio-economic levels. Several measures can achieve this:

• Include community ownership as a qualifying domestic content component.
• Extend the Aboriginal Loan guarantee or extend the mandate of Infrastructure Ontario to provide loans to all community-led projects.
• Increase the community power price adders, and apply to all projects (including microFIT). This is required because of higher entry point costs for small, community projects.
• Give priority grid access for community projects. Local community members paid for this infrastructure and should get priority for connecting their projects.
• Give community power tax exemption. Many non-profits are concerned of losing their charitable status when generating income through renewable energy. This would avoid the perceived barrier and create extra incentive for smaller, community-based projects.
• Strengthen the Community Energy Partnerships Program with more funding so that more communities are aware of the opportunities and take advantage of them.

We encourage policymakers to reduce the barriers found in the approval framework for executing a FIT or microFIT contract. A frequent complaint by our constituents seeking to adopt solar energy has been the difficulty of connecting to the grid, particularly with Hydro One. These barriers not only frustrate the early adopters, but prevent enthusiasm and support for the program from spreading.

MCCO is thankful for the leadership of the Ontario government in creating new jobs in the green economy and encourages this path further. Secure, well-paying jobs are essential to ending poverty and bringing prosperity to all. Complimentary job training is needed to allow all people access to these jobs. It is expected that FIT rates will decline in a transparent manner, while still creating proper incentive for the industry to grow and mature.

We believe in a future where communities live in right relationship with God, one another and creation.  A clean energy system is central to this vision and the non-profit sector and faith-based communities are eager and willing partners in the transition to renewable energy. Thank you.

Rick Cober Bauman

Executive Director | Mennonite Central Committee Ontario