QUEEN’S PARK — Mike Schreiner released the following statement in response to reports that the Ford government’s first climate change impact report is delayed again.
“It’s extremely disappointing – although not surprising – that the Premier’s government’s report on what it needs to do to protect people from the impacts of the climate crisis is once again delayed.
This delay is unacceptable, especially when many of the costs of climate change to Ontario are already well-documented. Recent reports from the Financial Accountability Office show that climate-fueled extreme weather is going to cost us $25 billion this decade alone. Adapting public transportation infrastructure will cost between $110 to $229 billion by 2100.
People in Ontario are already feeling these costs – in flood damage to their homes and properties, in higher energy bills, and in rising costs of basic necessities like food and fuel.
Meanwhile, we know where the Premier’s priorities lie: in super-sprawl highways in the Greenbelt, expensive and polluting fossil gas plants, and paving over farmlands and wetlands to line the pockets of well-connected speculators.
This is no time for petty excuses. We’re in a climate emergency, yet this government has no plan to protect Ontario from the costs we’re facing.
This delay sends a clear message from the Premier’s government: they are setting us up to fail, and the people of Ontario will pay the price.”