Ontario's new energy minister kept busy

Anyone wondering about the new Ontario energy minister's attitude towards wind power just had to look at her appointment calendar when the industry converged on the provincial capital for its annual conference. On the job just five days by the time the conference began, Donna Cansfield spoke at the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association's forum on community wind development, attended a press conference held by DMI Industries to announce a new Ontario tower manufacturing plant, and delivered the keynote address at CanWEA's annual awards banquet. In her speech, Cansfield left no doubt she is a strong advocate of the province's plan to shut down its coal fired generating stations and focus on cleaner energy supplies, including wind. She compared her province to Germany, which has one-third the land base of Ontario, but 16,500 MW of installed wind capacity already. "So you folks have a lot to do," she told her appreciative audience.