Please reconsider Bill 4. …

Please reconsider Bill 4. Climate change is an urgent issue, and we all stand to lose by any policy that takes a step backward in the fight against it. The principle of making polluters pay is sound, because they are costing all of us in multiple ways, and their short-term gains are now outweighed in the short-, medium-, and long-term by their costs.

We will lose jobs, we will lose investment, and we will lose the leads and advantages that we currently enjoy in energy generation and supply (for example), should we fail to capitalize on our opportunities. It is no overstatement to say that we will lose health, wealth, and lives as well, by not adapting to the reality and priorities of our times. We greatly risk being left behind should other countries' investments make our products and services financially and ethically suspect and undesirable. We should move with purpose to seize the opportunities in the clean economy, which all of the world's most advanced countries are actively pursuing, in part by choosing to make climate change a priority and investing in cleaner industries, as well as pursuing increasing energy efficiency.

Government has an important role to play in achieving targets for the common good of citizens. Stepping aside from the responsibilities of government to intervene, and expecting or wishing that the private sector will work out the solutions that are best for everyone, is naive. Despite common complaints against the wastefulness and bureaucracy of government, human nature suggests that, left to their own devices, it is the organization that represents the most people (the government) that will do the most for the common good.

Regarding the fact that there are other, bigger polluters, in many ways we have already been shown to have an outsize effect by our own actions, as has been seen in numerous fields, where numbers alone do not indicate the influence that we can have, including in aerospace, entertainment, healthcare research, and now artificial intelligence. The achievements in these areas have been at least supported by government, and we must do the same regarding climate change, otherwise those who look back may marvel at shortsighted decisions and poor judgement. If we are not fully leading, we should at least be on the winning side.