Greenpeace asks court to save cap-and-trade

Group argues Ford required to consult public

TORONTO • An environmental advocacy group is turning to the courts in an effort to halt the Ontario government’s plan to scrap the province’s cap-and-trade system.

A legal challenge filed on behalf of Greenpeace Canada on Tuesday alleges Premier Doug Ford and his PC government failed to consult with the public on a regulation ending Ontario’s capand-trade program and a proposed bill that would alter the province’s legislative regime for tackling climate change.

The group said the province’s Environmental Bill of Rights states that residents have the right to a 30-day consultation process on environmentally significant regulations and legislation.

In its application for judicial review, the group alleged the province’s decision to bypass mandatory notice and consultation was “unreasonable and incorrect, procedurally unfair, and therefore unlawful.”

“Basically, any policy, regulation or legislation that affects the environment has to be go through the EBR consultation process, and they’ve tried to skip that saying the election campaign constituted equivalent consultation,” Keith Stewart, a senior energy strategist with Greenpeace Canada, said in an email.

Greenpeace said it has obtained an expedited hearing, tentatively scheduled for Sept. 21, so that the case can be heard before the government’s legislation on tackling climate change passes. The group said it’s also seeking to have the regulation that scrapped cap-and-trade revoked.

The province didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the legal action, which contains unproven allegations.

Ford has said he’ll invoke a rarely used charter of rights provision known as the notwithstanding clause to push ahead with his plan to shrink the size of Toronto city council, but Stewart said the notwithstanding clause could not be used in Greenpeace’s legal challenge because the case relies on procedural rights under the Environmental Bill of Rights, not charter rights.

Ontario’s cap-and-trade system aimed to lower greenhouse gas emissions by putting caps on the amount of pollution companies in certain industries could emit. If companies exceeded those limits, they had to buy allowances at quarterly auctions or from other companies that came in under their limits.