My Clean Break column today is about cleantech clusters, and how Toronto — and southern Ontario for that matter — is behind the pack in creating a critical mass of companies, academic institutions, and utilities that collaborate on the development of clean technologies. The implications of doing so, of course, is local investment and job creation. Nicholas Parker, co-founder and chairman of the Cleantech Venture Network who lives and loves Toronto, is trying to get Mayor David Miller and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty behind an effort to make Toronto (or southern Ontario more broadly) a clean technology cluster that can compete with the likes of London, Shanghai, San Francisco, Boston and Vancouver. Parker figures Toronto could create 100,000 new direct jobs over the next 10 years if it focused its efforts and built the necessary links between academia, government, utilities and local cleantech companies. The pieces of the puzzle are there, we just have to put them together.

If discussions go well, Parker hopes to announce a public-private Toronto cleantech partnership in October, when Toronto is expected to play host to one of his company’s popular Cleantech Venture Forums.

My Clean Break podcast today is an interview with Kamal Hassan, chief executive of Toronto-based Skymeter Corp., which I wrote about briefly in an earlier post. Hassan talks about his company’s vehicle location billing technology, which is based on satellite tracking, and how it could be used to implement downtown congestion charges, pay-as-you-drive insurance plans, and CO2-based parking schemes. The opportunities are huge, and Skymeter has already attracted the attention of London, Toronto and major cities across North America. I urge you to listen, if only because Hassan is quite passionate about the technology and articulates its potential quite convincingly.