ONTARIO: Premier Doug Ford Announces the End of Cap-and-Trade
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On July 3, 2018, Ontario Premier, Doug Ford, confirmed that, as the first order of business, his cabinet revoked the regulation that supports cap-and-trade in the province. To ensure an orderly wind-down of programs funded through the cap-and-trade, Ford committed his government to honouring arrangements where contracts have already been signed and orders have already been made, such as energy efficient insulation and window retrofits. Decisions to continue any specific initiatives currently supported by the fund will need to be paid for out of the tax base and will be made on a case-by-case basis in alignment with the Ford government's Plan For the People and an upcoming value-for-money audit.
By cancelling cap-and-trade, Ontario will end up with a carbon tax: The most likely result of cancelling cap-and-trade is that Ontario will get a federal carbon tax instead, at a higher cost to polluters...The federal government has made it very clear that as part of their national climate plan, they plan to enforce their backstop carbon tax on any province without an existing carbon pricing system...Starting in January 2019, the federal government would bring in a tax at $20 per tonne, rising to $50 per tonne in 2022. This is higher than carbon prices under cap-and-trade, which are currently around $18 per tonne and would rise more slowly.
