Given how crucial this bill…

Given how crucial this bill is to the future of Ontario, I am sure that you have a lot of public comments to read so I will keep this brief. Please refer to the included supporting links for more details, these will be identified as [sample source, yyyy].

[ The Colour of Growth: Maximising the Potential of Green Business, 2012]
This report is the result of in-depth analysis and shows that moving towards a low-carbon economy will provide a huge economic boost while creating many new jobs. The report concludes that:
• “over a third of the UK’s economic growth in 2011/12 is likely to have come from green business”
• “And in 2014/15, it is expected to roughly halve the UK’s trade deficit”
• in other words that “... green and growth go together.”

It is important to note that this report was put together by the CBI (Confederation of British Industry). So this data is coming from a UK business organization that consists of approximately 190,000 businesses whose main concern is what is best for business.

[Pinterest link] + [Green economy: a UK success story, 2012]
This is other material that summarizes the above CBI report and even includes a second PDF link for downloading the calculations that the report is based upon.

[Climate change action is good for the economy – and Britain is the proof, 2017]
Now fast forward to 2017 and you will find in the enclosed article from The Guardian, that “British companies in low-carbon goods and services already turn over an estimated £83bn per year; and ... this sector has the potential to become a major engine of trade and growth.”

[Investing in the global green economy: Busting common myths, 2018]
The report from FTSE Russell states that the green economy is “Substantial”, “Mutifaceted”, “Global”, “OutPerforming”, “Diversified”& “Grown as a proportion of the total market, while the fossil fuels sector has shrunk.”

[Ontarians want action on climate change. So, what’s the plan?, 2018]
So many countries are now benefiting from the green economy, that there can no longer be any arguments that it would be huge boon to Ontario as well. The Cap and Trade is so much more than a system, it is our way to gain access to the global green economy and without it we will:
• Lose the incentives and rewards for businesses and families to not only reduce pollution but also greatly reduce their energy bills, eliminate harmful diesel fumes to children who take the bus, etc
• Lose the confidence of investors. In fact, “the German government warned multinationals to be wary of investing in Ontario, and California moved quickly to protect their businesses that had been trading with the province. All told, this results in real capital and jobs leaving the province.”
• “escalating costs due to climate-related weather events”. In fact “According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, 4 of the 5 highest yearly catastrophic disaster payout years from 1983 to 2016 occurred after 2010 – the highest being over $5 billion in 2016”
Additionally, if this bill is allowed to pass then Ontario will also lose out on a lot more money. I’m referring to the already spent cap-and-trade money which is set to be given back to their sources, essentially rewarding them for polluting at our expense.

Given the above information, can we really afford to throw away our access to the growing $26 trillion clean economy?! What we need now is a solid climate action plan starting with the Cap and Trade system. For this to work the plan must be left in place from government to government, providing investor confidence. Thus leading to a much brighter future for Ontario, a future with a strong economy based upon green technology.

Thank you for you time.