With climate change looming…

With climate change looming as THE major issue facing our present and future, it seems that scrapping cap and trade will keep Ontario residents at risk for the impact of further climate related change.

Here are a few points that would seem to point to the enormous benefits it brings to Ontario.

1.Cap-and-trade is extremely profitable for the province proceeds for 2018-2019 were estimated at $2 billion
2. For a government that claims to be “for the people,” the decision to scrap a program that helped fund crucial public infrastructure is incomprehensible.
3. That $2 billion could have gone into: boosting energy efficiency in our homes, improving public transit systems, protecting forests and agricultural areas and supporting electric car usage.
4. Cap-and-trade could have made a major contribution to greenhouse gas reduction
5. By 2020, carbon pricing was expected to bring an 18-million-tonne decline in greenhouse gas emissions

For all of these reasons, plus the release of this week's UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's dire report, It seems that Ontario can be a leader in climate action by keeping cap and trade in place. Especially knowing that the predication that we have a very limited window of time to keep warming to a max of 1.5C - beyond which even half a degree will significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people.

As a concerned Ontario citizen I urge you to reconsider this decision!