Ontario’s Environment and Climate Change Minister Glen Murray says PC leader Patrick Brown has shown he just doesn’t understand the need for a realistic and affordable plan to fight climate change. Murray’s comments come after Brown said earlier this week if elected in 2018, the PCs would scrap the Liberal’s cap-and-trade program and replace it with a system that helps the environment, protects the economy, and lowers taxes for families and businesses. Murray says despite expert third-party research from EnviroEconomics illustrating that his carbon tax scheme would cost families and businesses more and do less for the environment, Brown and some of his Conservative colleagues continue to support it.
Unlike the PCs, Murray says his party has chosen an approach that makes sense for Ontario. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the federal government have mandated the provinces to have carbon pricing in place by 2018, and Murray says they’re taking the lead by moving forward with their plan to cap the pollution businesses can release into the atmosphere. Murray added this approach is best because it balances action with affordability, guaranteeing emission reductions at the cheapest price possible for families and the economy. He says it invests any proceeds raised transparently in green projects that will help make the fight against climate change easier. Businesses would also have the choice of either investing in green technologies to reduce their own emissions or purchasing allowances under this plan according to Murray.
He says the Conservatives’ plan wouldn’t offer businesses that choice, instead sending them down a road that would be more expensive and less effective. Murray continued by saying their carbon tax plan would cost families and businesses four times more, put an immediate end to the green investments the Liberals have made and, wouldn’t guarantee any reductions. Murray finished by saying Ontarians deserve better, because inefficient, ineffective and unaffordable is how you’d define a plan that costs more but does less.
