Green Rule Draws Flak

(Financial Post)

As investment in Ontario’s alternative-energy sector continues apace, legal experts are warning the provincial government may be violating international trade agreements with its local-content requirements. At the same time, energy producers are finding it difficult to meet the “made-in-Ontario” rules, which require a certain percentage of a project’s cost be sourced within the province.

“The EU is really fuming about this,” said Milos Barutciski, an international trade partner with Bennett Jones LLP, in Toronto.

“While on the one hand they’re negotiating with Canada about access to government procurement, the main province that they’re interested in getting access to comes up with this fairly straightforward discriminatory restriction on government procurement.”

Officials from the European Union have recently joined a call from the government of Japan asking Ontario to drop the domestic-content requirements of its legislation, saying it views Ontario’s rules as protectionist and a violation of international trade agreements. Read more here.