QUEEN’S PARK — Green Party of Ontario leader and Guelph MPP, Mike Schreiner, issued the following statement in response to the FAO review of cap-and-trade cancellation:
“Premier Ford’s anti-climate agenda is bad for the environment and bad for business. And today we learned that the Premier’s reckless actions are a $3 billion boondoggle that will dig a deeper fiscal hole for the province.
Premier Ford is putting politics and ideology over evidence, and it comes with a $3 billion price tag that the Conservatives are not being honest about.
The FAO report reveals the real financial consequences of Ford’s ‘cut first; think later’ approach to governing. He rushed to cancel cap-and-trade to make good on an ill-conceived campaign slogan. Now we are learning about the financial consequences.
The people of Ontario will pay dearly for the Premier’s reckless actions.
The numbers will only get worse as the real-world consequences of abandoning climate action rise. Insurable losses from extreme weather events in Ontario amounted to nearly $1 billion in the first half of 2018. We are at risk of losing $420 million in federal transfers contingent on having a real climate change plan. And we can expect legal challenges from companies unfairly punished by the Ford government for simply following the previous rules of cap-and-trade.
Everyday we are learning more about the financial costs of a government that puts ideology over evidence.”