Signs of climate change …

Signs of climate change have been increasing steadily -- increasingly stronger rainstorms, blizzards, tornados and hurricanes with resultant property damage and deaths, exceptional flooding incidents, notably in places like Toronto and Calgary with large ensuing damage costs, increased forest fires, notably B.C. and Fort MacMurray, ocean rise, melting of the polar ice, etc.

Action has been procrastinated too long already and immediate strong action is needed NOW to slow down the greenhouse gas rise -- NOT in some vague future when it will be too late to make meaningful change.

The Doug Ford government has NO alternate plan ready to replace the one being cancelled. If it had a well thought out, carefully crafted plan developed from wide ranging professional and scientific input ready to go that was demonstrably better than the current Cap and Trade program designed to make polluting companies pay for the costs they are downloading onto future governments, or other Green Energy supports in the plan, that would be one thing.

But only promises of a future plan, with currently unspecified timelines, goals and methods of achieving them is offered to replace the existing plan -- and in a time when the dangers of uncontrolled climate change are becoming increasingly obvious and the need to mitigate them becoming more urgent, relying on willow-wisp plans is dangerously short-sighted and liable to create huge damage to lives and property.

It seems significant that the government seems aware of the potential dangers of this law if it is passed -- a major component is focused on preventing any legal action against the government or specified people for damage resulting from it, thus preventing them from being held responsible for the results of their decisions and any resulting fallout.

This in itself indicates this is not good policy designed carefully for the better good of the province and its citizens. It also raises the question of why the government wants increased climate change and who it expects to benefit from it, considering the widespread damage and losses likely to be resulting from not controlling emissions.

Rather than forcing this plan through, the government should keep enacting the existing plans of the previous government, and then when it has developed more effective, practical and science-based methods of cutting greenhouse gas emissions, THEN it can put its alternate plans in place so that at least something is being NOW to start cutting emissions.

Thank you.