Much time, money and effort…

Much time, money and effort have gone into creating Ontario's cap and trade system. Undoing all this is irresponsible.

The Government of Canada (and not the Province of Ontario) is a Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Paris Agreement, which requires all Parties to put forward their best efforts through "nationally determined contributions" (NDCs). Canada's NDC under the Paris Agreement is "to reduce emissions to 30% below 2005 levels by 2030." Furthermore, under Canada's NDC, provinces and territories "have the flexibility to implement either an explicit price on carbon (e.g., through a carbon tax) or cap-and-trade systems and will retain all revenue generated by carbon pricing."

Even though the targets proposed by Canada and other Parties are nowhere near enough to prevent catastrophic climate change, Canada's NDC would be a start, if implemented.

Ontario's proposed Cap and Trade Cancellation Act, 2018 is extremely unhelpful in terms of Canada's ability to achieve its NDC. The time "to establish targets for reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions" is long past. Why should Ontario set its own target? Furthermore, the time to "prepare a climate change plan" for Ontario is long past. Why doesn't Ontario participate constructively in the development of a national climate change plan?

Climate change knows no political boundaries. This is an issue of common survival, not partisan politics and jurisdictional squabbling. It is time for real action, not endless "planning" and "target setting.|