Climate change is poised to…

Climate change is poised to be the defining issue of our generation. Scientific consensus, including the IPCC's most recent report released in Oct 2018 reiterate the seriousness and urgency of reducing greenhouse gas emissions globally in line with science-based targets to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius.

The cancellation of Cap and Trade and related programs including Green On without a credible replacement program significantly impacts the likelihood that Ontario and as a result, Canada, can achieve it's greenhouse gas reduction goals. As a top 10 global emitter both per capita and in total, and one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Our failure to achieve our share of the global challenge to reduce GHG emissions would represent an abject failure in leadership and abdication of responsibility that would significantly diminish our global standing.

There is a false argument that anything we do in Ontario and Canada is irrelevant because we represent only ~2% of global emissions. The reality is that even if the worlds largest and fastest growing emitters, China, USA, Russia became carbon neutral, we would still fail to meet our global GHG reduction goals. We very much need significant contributions from the remaining 195 countries - especially those with the technical expertise, capacity for innovation and good government of Canada and its Provinces.

We strongly support that the PC government maintain Provincial greenhouse gas reduction targets at or greater than the exiting targets for 2030 and 2050.

The speed in which Cap and Trade cancellation as proposed without an adequate wind down and transition to a new plan, has major economic implications for thousands of projects, worth billions of dollars of private investment which were moving forward with support of Can and Trade revenues.

It will be impossible for Ontario to achieve it's greenhouse gas goals without significant action in the building sector in particular, both because it is a major contributor (~1/3) of provincial emissions and has the most affordable overall reduction potential of any major emission sector. Revenues unlocked by Cap and Trade auctions and targeted to low carbon building projects and retrofits would have generated billions of additional dollars or private investment, created thousands of jobs in STEM, design, skilled trades, real-estate and property management. The results would have been significant energy savings and lower operating costs of real-estate, increased property value, and improved building comfort and safety for thousands of Ontario homes and workplaces. Cap and Trade also provided funding for critical big data management projects and market research to understand emissions profiles in the building sector at a scale and resolution that greatly increases our ability to design effective programs and target key market segments with the right solutions. It also provided much needed resources to develop the design, construction and property management workforce that will be needed to build, operate and retrofit buildings at the pace and scale that is needed. Current industry capacity is significantly short on low-carbon building skills and sheer numbers of workers to meet demand.

Even without Cap and Trade, we strongly encourage the Provincial to continue investing in projects that achieve both carbon reductions and broader social co-benefits including reduction in operating costs for public buildings, improved public health and safety, and providing affordable housing and community amenities.

We also encourage the Provincial government to invest in a developing a low-carbon building workforce to meet the growing need for skilled workers to support zero carbon new buildings, deep retrofits and energy management. We will need to ramp up development activity significantly in order to transform our building stock to the performance level we need by 2050 and we do not have the workforce available to absorb that.

Finally we encourage the Provincial government to continue to support and disseminate market intelligence and research that helps us understand greenhouse gas emissions in the building sector at a tactical level so that the marketplace can best develop and deploy programs and strategies to market.