A Liberal lite climate plan

The Ford government’s climate change plan might as well come with the following dedication: “With thanks to Dalton and Kathleen.”

The fact that it could deliver a plan that proposes to do so little, and not face even more derision for it, is because of how much was achieved under the Liberal governments of Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne.

“Since 2005, while the rest of Canada saw (greenhouse gas) emissions rise, the people of Ontario have reduced their emissions by 22 per cent,” says Environment Minister Rod Phillips.

He’s crediting the hard work of Ontarians, and that’s true enough. But it’s the Liberals who had the vision and political guts to marshal individuals and businesses into making the necessary changes to reduce those emissions by closing the province’s coal-fired electricity plants.

Moving to cleaner energy sources, and some of the mistakes made along the way, came with a cost — rising electricity prices. The PCs happily used that to bury the Liberals in the last election. Indeed, having spent the better part of 15 years railing against the Liberals’ energy policies, they’re now looking to cash in on them.

That’s politics, and it could easily be overlooked if only they had delivered a plan to build on those accomplishments. Instead, the Ford government is essentially saying: thanks for the heavy lifting, we’ll coast to the finish line. They’ve even moved the finish line to make the job easier.

So at the very time scientists are warning more must be done to avoid the most catastrophic effects of a rapidly warming planet, Ontario has dramatically reduced its target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Under the Paris climate accord, Canada has committed to reducing emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. And the former Wynne government’s more aggressive targets for Ontario would have helped the nation as a whole meet that goal.

But under Ford, Ontario is aiming for the bare minimum. “Our share,” as Phillips calls it, stops at reductions of just 18 megatonnes more, about 30 MT less than the old plan.

And it’s far from certain that the plan can even meet that dramatically scaled-back target.

It will eventually require large industrial emitters to meet some reduction standard with costs attached. It will be “tough but fair, cost-effective and flexible” and certainly never be referred to as a tax on carbon.

It also includes a $400-million carbon trust fund to encourage investments in clean technologies to reduce emissions. The cost of that is covered off by the cap-and-trade funds sitting in government coffers, again thanks to the former Liberal government

Overall, the climate plan amounts to less of everything. Less ambition to tackle the crisis of a warming planet, and less funding to help families and businesses reduce their carbon footprint.

Once again, it looks like Premier Doug Ford’s primary theory of governing amounts to not costing people anything that they can easily see or measure.

Transportation is Ontario’s biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, but in Ford’s world, cheaper gas is a worthy goal and commuters are not polluters.

Of course they are, but understandably no one who has to drive likes to hear that. Telling people what they want to hear has clear political advantages, but it’s a terrible recipe for the future of the planet.

So far, the “made-in-Ontario” climate plan has done nothing to alleviate the uncertainty facing residents and businesses. Ontario’s cap-and-trade program is gone, but it’s impossible to say what this new plan will mean for anyone. And it certainly doesn’t remove the prospect of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau imposing the federal carbon tax in Ontario.

For Ford, that may well be the plan’s best quality. After five months in office, he continues to delight in opposing the policies of others rather than proposing detailed solutions of his own. And he undoubtedly sees political benefit in attacking Trudeau and his carbon tax.

Political calculations aside, though, it means Ontario will go from leader to laggard on climate change. That’s a big step backward.

The Ford government’s climate change plan means Ontario will go from leader to laggard