Supporting Strong Action on…

Supporting Strong Action on Climate Change: Comments on Bill 4, Cap and Trade Cancellation Act, 2018

Dear Premier Ford and Government of Ontario;

The following are my comments and observations on Bill 4 (and some related matters):

1. Your election was overwhelmingly a vote against Kathleen Wynn and her government (and should not be viewed as a vote against putting a price on carbon pollution).
2. The Cap and Trade law should not be repealed unless and until it is replaced by an equally effective climate change law.
3. Once a replacement climate action law is in effect, the Cap and Trade regime should be wound down in an orderly manner that requires all emitters to obtain cap and trade instruments covering all of their emissions up until a specified future date (e.g., December 31, 2018) to avoid windfall profits to irresponsible emitters.
4. Since climate change is already having adverse impacts around the world (including wildfires, flooding and other costly bizarre weather events in Ontario), and in light of the most recent dire climate change updates from the IPCC, and the award of the Nobel Prize for Economics to William Nordhaus for his work on carbon pricing, I strongly support the imposition of a price on carbon pollution (and disagree with your attack on the federal pollution pricing scheme).
5. If the price on carbon pollution were to be returned to Ontario taxpayers it would leave them better off financially, would encourage them to reduce emissions and would drive innovation and create high quality employment in Ontario together with export opportunities.
6. In order to spur economic activity in the province, to reduce payments for oil and gas from suppliers outside the province, and to help reduce electricity prices by increasing utilization, the Government should impose a zero emissions vehicle (ZEV) mandate requiring that manufacturers sell at least the same percentage of ZEVs in Ontario as are required to be sold in China (and spur the development of EV supply chain in Ontario) through the procurement of EVs for government use.