There has been much talk…

There has been much talk about leadership of late and mandates but I am afraid the current government has failed on both counts. Cap and trade provided funding for transit and other green energy incentives that could place Ontario on the cutting edge of technology providing jobs, services and revenue for the province. Cutting cap and trade removes the funding and removes the incentives to move forward. It has been said that cap and trade is a tax, this is not true. Industry has a clear picture of expectations and an incentive to cut carbon emissions, thus they control how much they have to pay. Home owners are encouraged to reduce their carbon footprint and save money on fuel and heating costs. Improved transit funded by cap and trade gets more people moving and by reducing the number of vehicles on the road thus cutting congestion. To remove cap and trade is to invite the Federal Government to impose a carbon tax which may not provide these benefits. The Premier has said he will fight the carbon tax in the courts which will cost large sums of taxpayer money and with little prospect of winning and, even in the unlikely even that the action succeeds, the Federal Government can invoke the Notwithstanding clause of the Constitution and all that money will have been spent for naught. As for mandates, I remind the Premier respectfully than nearly 60% of voters did NOT support his agenda.

The common argument put forward against cutting emissions is that tiny little Canada hardly emits any carbon compared to other nations. Perhaps this is so, but do we as a nation not pride ourselves in punching well above our weight? Do we not understand that if other nations look at us and see us doing nothing they will have less incentive to move forward? Do our leaders not see an opportunity to bring leading edge technology to the world that will benefit the planet and or economy? The actions of this government suggest that none of this is important to them and that they are willing to gamble with our future to score points with their political base. Put bluntly, this is not good enough. Ontarians deserve better.