I am a scientist. Each and…

I am a scientist. Each and every day, I use the scientific method to do my work and to run my personal life. The scientific method is based on hypothesis, experimentation, analysis of results, revision of the hypothesis, re-experimentation, and finally, communication with the worldwide scientific and non-scientific community via peer-review publication. This method has served humanity well for centuries, leading to life-changing innovations like medicines, electricity, nuclear power, etc, and has been the best methodology to arrive at the truth. As a scientist and citizen of Ontario, I am extremely concerned with the direction of this current PC government in abandoning evidence and science in their decision making. This includes abandoning the pioneering efforts of previous Ontario governments in addressing the #1 issue facing the future of civilization including Ontario: climate change. Thousands of scientists worldwide have identified climate change as threatening the very existence of human life on this planet. Those same scientists have encouraged urgent action to change the arc of global warming, and policy makers and elected officials worldwide are beginning to take steps in the right direction. This current Ontario government is taking steps in precisely the opposite and wrong direction. We all need to do our part to address climate change. Experts have identified pricing carbon either through an explicit carbon tax or through mechanisms such as cap-and-trade. Both of these harness the power of market forces, whereby price signals encourage market participants to change their behavior. Market forces have been the foundation of conservative orthodoxy for centuries, including for the PC part of Ontario. I am extremely concerned that the repeal of the cap-and-trade system in Ontario, and the Green Energy Act will reverse the dramatic steps that Ontario has already taken and would take under these regimes towards doing our part to address climate change. I am strongly concerned that this government does not take the threat of climate change seriously, does not have a plan to address climate change, and does not use evidence-based decision-making nor expert advise in its policy-making, and this has lead to the extremely rash abandonment of Ontario's work towards reducing climate change. The government claims repealing the cap-and-trade system in Ontario will save Ontario families $260 year, which is a silly populism-fueled policy by a short-sighted government. Furthermore this calculation fails to take into account the local and world-wide costs of NOT addressing climate change; we are already seeing the effects of climate change-fueled more intense natural disasters such as the recent tornadoes in Ottawa. I'm sure the cumulative damage for such increased natural disasters will far exceed $260 per Ontario family. I am deeply disappointed in this Bill I strongly encourage this government to abandon its ridiculous populist inclinations.