In Canada, Ontario’s Government for the People has recently announced a new, "made-in-Ontario" environment plan for public consultation. According to Rod Phillips, Minister of the Environment, Conservation, and Parks, the plan strikes the "right balance between a healthy environment and a healthy economy" without imposing an "ineffective, regressive carbon tax on hard-working Ontario families."
The proposed plan “Preserving and Protecting our Environment for Future Generations: A Made-in-Ontario Environment Plan” which was released on November 29, 2018, is posted on the Environmental Registry for public input until January 28, 2019. The proposed Environment Plan aims to address four key environmental challenges facing Ontario; air and water pollution, climate change, waste management, landscape, and green space conservation.
The plan proposes a more sustainable use of water, improving municipal wastewater treatment and stormwater management and work with municipalities to increase reporting to protect the public, lakes, and rivers.
On climate change, the plan notes that Ontario has already made “significant and meaningful” investments in climate action. In 2001, the government of the day announced the closure of the Lakeview Generating Station, which started a phase-out of coal-fired electricity that remains the largest greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction in Canadian history.
Measured against the same base year of Canada’s target under the Paris Agreement (2005), the report highlights that the province’s total GHG emissions have dropped by 22 percent while the rest of Canada saw emissions increase by 3 percent during that same period and that power generation was now “virtually” emissions-free.
The plan outlines the government’s legislative obligations including The Cap and Trade Cancellation Act, 2018 that requires the establishment of targets for reducing the amount of GHG emissions in Ontario to 2030 in accordance to the Paris Agreement and the preparation of a climate change plan and progress reports in respect of the plan.
For carbon reductions in transportation, the plan lists adoption of low carbon vehicles including natural gas vehicles (NGVs), increasing the ethanol blend in gasoline to 15 percent with the introduction of E15 as early as 2025 as well as increase the production and use of renewable natural gas (RNG) as well as other low-carbon fuels.
The plan also outlines that large emitters are to be subject to tougher provincial emission performance standards and that financial assistance would be provided to encourage emissions reduction initiatives. An Ontario Carbon Trust Fund would provide around CA$350 million (≈ EUR 308 million) in funding to leverage private capital at a 4:1 ratio of which an Ontario Reverse Auction Fund will offer CA$50 million (≈ EUR 44.1 million).
The latter is designed to attract lowest-cost GHG emission reduction projects helping unleash the “resourcefulness and creativity” of the private sector while “freeing them from burdensome taxes and red tape that make them less profitable and hinder their growth.”
The plan additionally includes “robust transparency measures” that will ensure the public has real-time information about monitoring, incidents and enforcement activities.
This plan strikes the right balance between a healthy environment and a healthy economy. It contains solutions that will protect our air, land, and water, reduce waste, address litter, increase our resilience to climate change and help us all do our part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Most importantly, it does all of this without imposing an ineffective, regressive carbon tax on hard-working Ontario families. Our plan will encourage individuals, families, governments, and businesses to take greater ownership of our shared environmental challenges through real actions, big and small. We promised the people of Ontario we are serious about addressing environmental challenges of our day while respecting hard-working taxpayers – and we are keeping that promise said Rod Phillips, Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.
