Ontario is well positioned…

Ontario is well positioned to be a world-leader and attract foreign businesses to the province. That is because our electricity system today is very low carbon (96% carbon-free last year according to the environmental commissioner). We can advertise to the world that any company who move their HQ to Ontario can effectively reduce their carbon footprint to near zero.

That current situation is almost all down to hydro and nuclear power, very little to do with wind and solar.

We need to reduce carbon emissions further though. The recent federal report "Generation Energy" identified the best way to do that is to generate more low-carbon electricity, then transition current fossil fuel use over to clean electricity. There are three easy targets: 1. electric cars instead of gasoline cars, 2. electric heat in homes and offices instead of natural gas, 3. electrify rail and move heavy freight off the roads.

This will only work if it is more economical for the public to heat their homes with electricity instead of natural gas, and if it is more economic to buy and operate an electric car than a gas-burning car.

Hydro and nuclear are the current cheapest sources of electricity in the province, and our electricity costs are much cheaper than most developed countries. Making them cheaper still will get the public to change behaviours.

We need provincial policy that will favour hydro and nuclear power, but also one that will nudge people away from buying 5.7 litre HEMI trucks. Some sort of carbon tax makes sense to me. If we remove the cap and trade system, we need something else that moves the public further away from fossil fuels. Cheap electricity could be subsidized by taxing natural gas, oil and gasoline. In that way households aren't punished, because they can move to electric hear and electric vehicles on an affordable basis.