Ontario should not fight cap-and-trade
Re Ford joins Saskatchewan’s fight against carbon tax, July 20 Ontario Premier Doug Ford plans to join Saskatchewan in spending millions of taxpayer dollars to fight a lost cause.
Their constitutional challenge against the federal government’s carbon backstop doesn’t have a chance, something that the Manitoba government found out when it wisely looked into the matter. Premier Ford’s action is nothing more than an expensive appeal to his party’s base. It’s worth noting that approximately 60 per cent of Ontarian voters chose parties that support carbon pricing, so Ford’s so-called mandate to kill it is on shaky ground.
Oddly, this “Conservative” stance on carbon pricing runs counter to conservative thinking. According to conservative economists and business leaders, the most effective, transparent, accountable and cost-effective method to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is for governments to place a rising fee on carbon to spur the market to develop clean energy innovations that create jobs.
Returning the carbon fee to households will further stimulate the economy. So in fighting the inevitable, the two provinces are wasting not only tax dollars, but a great opportunity to design a mechanism that puts money in the pockets of their citizens. Cheryl McNamara, Toronto Premier Ford’s speech from the throne stated that he wants to put more money into the pockets of Ontarians. How is this going to be possible when he is planning on using 30 million of our tax dollars to fight our federal government on carbon tax? The feds will then have to spend more of our tax dollars arguing against him.
This does not compute for me! Remember Mr. Ford, there is only one taxpayer: municipal, provincial and federal. Elizabeth Dunn, Simcoe County The new Regressive Conservative government in Ontario is misrepresenting the results of the recent election as a mandate from the people of Ontario to end the cap-and-trade program.
I, for one, don’t remember seeing this issue as a referendum question on the ballot on June 7.
I would remind them that only 40 per cent of voters chose the party that wanted to end capand-trade. Brian Kelly, Whitby