Thank you for the chance to…

Thank you for the chance to comment. I would like to share my perspective that dismantling cap and trade - a regime that the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario's recent report showed was working - is not in the best interest of Ontario. The urgency of climate change means we should not be accepting the loss of time or the cost to Ontarians to pull out, break contracts, fight lawsuits, adjust our policies and leave businesses that thrive on certainty spinning their wheels.

The one point I'd really like to make is that it is misleading to paint cap and trade and a carbon tax with one brush in public messaging. Though I am sure this is an intentional choice, it is demeaning to the intelligence of the electorate. It is the responsibility of the elected government that chooses to use or dismantle policy instruments to simply and honestly explain how those tools work and how much they cost in contrast to alternatives. You don't have an economics degree to understand that a carbon price that gives business flexibility to decide if it will pay more to keep polluting or less to reduce is better for the economy than traditional regulations that tell them what to do. It feels as though, too often, governments only explain what policies they'll be using, but not why. Ontarians deserve a better explanation of why standards and regulations, for example, are preferred over carbon pricing beyond: 'this was the worst tax ever made' (I don't doubt there are valid reasons for your government that outweigh the marginal benefits of carbon pricing for you).

With those 'two cents' said, I hope you will pursue a plan with ambitious targets and a range of smart policy tools that bring about dramatic and rapid reductions from Ontario. As we heard from the UN IPCC this week, there's no alternative - for governments at any level, for business, for households or individuals.

Thanks for your consideration.