As an Ontario taxpayer and…

As an Ontario taxpayer and grandmother of three small boys, I am outraged that the current Government of Ontario plans to cancel the Cap and Trade Program, which was designed to contribute to the achievement of Canada’s commitment to the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

Not a tax as the Conservative party insists on calling it, a cap-and-trade system is “an approach that harnesses market forces to reduce emissions cost-effectively… Cap and trade allows the market to determine a price on carbon, and that price drives investment decisions and spurs market innovation.” (C2ES, the Centre for Climate and Energy Solutions, an independent, nonpartisan, non-profit organization working to forge practical solutions to climate change.)

How ironic that the political party that is most closely aligned with the philosophy of market-based solutions appears not to understand that cap-and-trade would have served the twin goals of reducing carbon emissions while stimulating economic innovation. In fact, this year’s Nobel prize winners in economics, two American researchers whose work on the economic impacts of climate change and the innovation that can be driven by responding to it positively, demonstrates where the future lies. William Nordhaus of Yale University endorses a universal tax on carbon, while Paul Romer of New York University suggests that the necessity of reducing carbon emissions will drive industries to innovate, saying “I hope the prize today could help everyone see that humans are capable of amazing accomplishments when we set about trying to do something.” (https://www.thespec.com/news-story/8951663-two-americans-win-economics-…)

A further irony is this government’s belief that cancelling the program will save us money. If we add up the $30 million this government has set aside to conduct a doomed challenge to the federal government over the issue of implementing carbon pricing, and the potential further millions of dollars now owed to organizations that have already purchased their carbon credits and will either want that money back or consider suing for it, and it is hard to see how anyone can believe this will actually save money in the long run. And let’s not forget about the folks who had put deposits on electric or hybrid vehicles and now find that the government rebate designed to help make their new car affordable has been snatched away, leaving them on the hook, in many cases, for the difference in cost. Or the loss of business to companies engaged in energy retrofits. Or the loss of funding to school boards and social housing that was generated by cap-and-trade.

But perhaps the biggest loss is that of time: the PC government promises it will come up with its own climate change action plan, but how long is this going to take? The reality is there are no ‘magic bullet’ solutions to this problem. Scientists are telling us we have only about 12 years to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to levels that will keep us within 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming. Beyond this, natural feedbacks will create tipping points that will accelerate warming and its consequences. And now, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has just announced that Canada’s existing carbon emission reduction targets will fall far short of what is needed to prevent catastrophic climate change. Given this, why not keep cap-and-trade and the carbon-reduction incentives funded by the program at least until a new climate change action strategy can be put into place?

At the moment, though, this government’s actions indicate that it is truly oblivious to the urgency of the problem facing us. While the majority of Ontarians voted for parties committed to maintaining cap-and-trade (the PC party received just 40.5% of the popular vote), we now have a government that pats itself on the back for turning its back on what is likely the biggest existential problem facing human-kind since the atom was split. With the cancellation of cap and trade, we are now without any kind of mechanism to provide incentives for industry or individuals to reduce carbon emissions. From being a leader in climate change policy, Ontario has now taken a giant step backwards into a no-win fossil-fuel dominated past, costing us critical time when we have only just over a decade to act, and act much more decisively than ever before if we hope to avoid a future than doesn’t bear thinking about. The Ontario government’s short-sighted approach will be no help to the “little guy” when a few years from now, our children and grandchildren will have to cope with the over-heated world we are heading for.

Therefore, as an Ontario taxpayer and voter, I call upon the Government of Ontario to quickly (within the next 3-4 months) implement a climate change action plan that will reduce emissions through legally binding targets to levels compatible with ensuring that warming does not exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius, while helping people save energy and creating jobs for Ontarians in the $26 trillion clean economy. Ontario must put a price on pollution, making polluters pay for their emissions and returning the revenues to the pockets of Ontarians so they can lower their carbon footprint. I want Ontario to be 100% powered by clean energy by 2050, and I want subsidies and handouts for fossil fuel companies to be redirected to clean energy solutions. If Premier Ford really does care about the “little guy”, he will put partisan politics aside and do what is right for this province and for Ontarians.