Three years ago, Canada…

Three years ago, Canada signed an agreement in Paris to reduce our carbon emissions to help make our contributions to the global effort. The impacts of climate change are strongly supported by scientists and many are saying that there WILL be a point of no return. It's time we learn from history such as with the cod crisis in the maritimes, that we need to implement regulations before it is TOO LATE. Iceland's government was intelligent enough to put controls on cod fishing before their stock ran out and unfortunately Canada and the US did nothing and as a result, Iceland has cod and we don't. The same principle applies to carbon. Canada needs to step up and reduce our carbon emissions before we reach the point of no return. I work firsthand cleaning up pollutants, and it is far cheaper to prevent pollution than it is to clean it up. There are severe economic and health consequences if pollution is not reduced. Ontario spent 38.7% of our tax revenue in 2018-19 on health care, and with no pollution controls such as cap and trade, that is only going to climb, particularly as baby boomers are older and become more susceptible to pollutants. There are huge costs of severe weather events such as flooding, which is continuing to climb across Canada (see attached link). I would hope that any political party believes in making sound economic decisions to help us grow and create jobs, and the facts are that the cap and trade program adds to the economy, it doesn't detract (see link in regards to California's growth with a cap and trade program). The cap-and-trade program would reduce our government spending and would improve economic growth in the long run and would contribute to keeping our agreement made in Paris.