I am vehemently opposed to…

I am vehemently opposed to the repeal of the Cap and Trade bill and I believe that the Ontario government is making an irreparable mistake that they have no right to make. I oppose this repeal, not because I am deeply ideologically driven, but because it is a foolish policy move on almost any metric that any Conservative (or any politician, for that matter) should care about.

1. Saving money: The Conservative government says that it will balance the books and ensure that the debt is cut down. This is a noble goal, as Ontario's debt has been ballooning for years under Liberal mismanagement. The Cap and Trade system, however, was raising more money for the Ontario government! Hundreds of millions of dollars were being brought in by the sale of carbon permits, at minimal cost to taxpayers (prices had not markedly risen on the vast majority of consumer goods or utilities, or any more than the national average). As well, this bill will require the government to compensate Ontario companies for the permits they are holding, but now cannot sell, which is a colossal waste of money that does not need to happen. In short, pulling out of cap and trade both incurs a huge expense and destroys a massive revenue source.

2. Protecting jobs: Let's be clear – the cap and trade system was creating and preserving jobs much more than it was killing them. The money from selling permits was going directly to the financing of Green projects, school and hospital retrofitting, and more projects. If Ontario pulls out of cap and trade, then the Conservative government has a stark choice: cancel these contracts (wasting more money for nothing and killing jobs) or find some other source of revenue to pay for them (raising taxes, taking on more debt, or slashing other programs). Either way, the Conservatives would be breaking a bigger promise to the People of Ontario if they pull out of cap and trade.

3. Fighting climate change: I am 21 years old. Doug Ford, his cabinet, his donors, and the majority of his electorate won't see the worst effects of climate change, but I will. The government has no right to pretend that climate change doesn't exist when we are already seeing catastrophic heat waves and extreme weather. Here's an analogy: imagine that there was a switch that, when flipped, would drop a bomb on Northern Ontario in 20 years. However, the switch was going to be flipped this year, and once flipped, could not be unflipped. Regardless of what voters today think, of course our government should spare no expense to find that switch and prevent it being flipped. The same is true of climate change, except bombs are being dropped every day, and they are only getting bigger.

4. Efficiency: If we don't stay in cap and trade, the only alternative is a carbon tax (unless the Ford government wants to waste more taxpayer money by litigating a hopeless and irresponsible case against the Federal government's constitutional right to tax its citizens). This is a much less efficient way to reduce emissions than cap and trade. A flat tax puts the same price on carbon for all companies, regardless of how easy it is for them to reduce emissions. This means that companies that are more carbon intensive bear a huge cost and are much more likely to fire workers. On the other hand, a carbon market allocates the burden as efficiently as possible. Here's an example: imagine there are two companies, company A and company B. A is a bank, while B is a shipping company. It would be easy for A to reduce its emissions (say, by dimming the lights), but it would be more costly for B to reduce its emissions. Thus, B will buy carbon permits from A. The result is that the same amount of carbon is emitted overall, but B gets more time to reduce its emissions and has a strong incentive to do so.

BOTTOM LINE: Please please please do not make an ideological decision by going through with this bill. Be smart. If you are genuinely a Conservative government, then the only way to follow Conservative values and evidence-based policy is to stay in the carbon market.