I am writing to express my…

I am writing to express my displeasure and my opposition to Bill 4. Pursuant to Section 6, Bill 4 purports to retire or cancel all eligible instruments under the Climate Change Mitigation and Low-carbon Economy Act. This is highly irresponsible. If passed, Bill 4 would constitute bad law and bad policy.

All economists who have looked at carbon emissions agree that the failure to price carbon emissions constitutes a failure of the free market economic system because the costs of production are in effect socialized while profit is not. This failure needs to be corrected to permit the market to function properly. Unless the market can function properly, economic growth as well as current and future prosperity is in jeopardy.

The best way to correct the failure of the market to properly price goods and services is either through a cap and trade system or a carbon tax. This in fact is the position of the World Bank.

The current regime while not perfect is a step in the right direction and with appropriate adjustments can work well to safeguard the sanctity of the free market. Bill 4 does the opposite.

I support the current target to reduce carbon emissions to 80% below 1990 levels. The United Nations recently sounded the alarm that it is imperative that a 1.5% reduction be achieved over the next 12 years be achieved. A “price signal” based on either a carbon tax or an effective cap and trade system is imperative and the failure to achieve this will endanger not only the economy, but the continued health of the environment. Bill 4 is calculated to ensure that necessary target will not be achieved.

Responsible government is government that puts into place policies and programs to protect economic growth and this in turn requires programs and policies to reduce emissions and to transition the economy to a lower carbon system.

Should this government fail the business community and the people of Ontario by passing Bill 4, the federal government has already announced it will implement a carbon tax. Whatever else that tax will be, it will not be a made-in-Ontario solution. The made-in-Ontario solution is the cap and trade system we currently have in place.

I urge you to reconsider Bill 4.