Cancelling cap and trade is…

Cancelling cap and trade is a senseless and irresponsible way to save a few cents at the pumps. This week one of the biggest news stories is the fact that even the Trump Administration is admitting that if we do not act now to slow the progress of climate change we can expect the global temperatures to rise by 4 degrees by 2100; this is coming from a government who has done everything in their power to deny climate change and cut back on environmental programs and spending. Now more than ever we need to be doing everything in our power to reduce and eliminate emissions where we can and cap and trade has been proven to be an effective tool for doing this.

In fact, not only should we keep cap and trade but we also need to be doing more to protect our environment and reduce emissions. Besides being a good mechanism to encourage lowered emissions, cap and trade also has a number of very important societal benefits for Ontario. The money from cap and trade was earmarked for programs such as renovating and upgrading schools (which is desperately needed), providing funding to homeowners to upgrade their homes to be more energy efficient and environmentally friendly, providing funding to offset the higher purchase cost of green vehicles, providing funding to developing the infrastructure needed to support green vehicles in our attempt to reduce our independence on fossil fuels among others.

Not only is keeping cap and trade a good idea from an environmental standpoint, but it is also the fiscally responsible choice for our province. If we should cancel cap and trade we will be doing nothing but opening ourselves up to a plethora of lawsuits from the corporations who have paid into this program for a service they are no longer receiving as well as from California and Quebec, our partners in this program. The lawsuits that will follow the cancelling of cap and trade will result in billions of wasted Ontario taxpayer dollars when we inevitably have to pay settlements to the parties involved. Nevermind the fact that if we cancel cap and trade then we will be subject to the federal carbon tax beginning in January 2019 which means that either way there will be a emissions taxing program in place in Ontario, it just depends whether we want to keep ours or waste billions of dollars being sued and have the federal program put in place anyways. If we keep cap and trade then that also means that the $30M of Ontario taxpayer money that has been budgeted to be frivolously wasted in a useless attempt to take the federal government to court over their carbon tax, a tax which they have every legal right to impose, can instead be reallocated towards a better and more appropriate use.