Ontario premier-designate Doug Ford has vowed that his first act in the legislature will be to scrap the province’s cap-and-trade program.
“In Ontario, the carbon tax’s days are numbered,” he announced Friday during a news conference at Queen’s Park.
Ford, who will be sworn in later this month, campaigned on a promise to dismantle Ontario’s existing cap-and-trade program aimed at reducing carbon emissions and to cut gas prices by 10 cents per litre. And he vowed not to bring in any new carbon tax to replace it.
“I promised that we would make life more affordable in Ontario. I promised we would reduce gas prices and respect your hard-earned money,” he said.
Ford explained that he would be giving notice of Ontario’s withdrawal from the joint carbon pricing market with Quebec and California’s, as well as the pro-carbon tax Western Climate Initiative. Further details about the “wind-down” of the program will be given later, he added.
The Progressive Conservatives have also budgeted $30 million for legal costs to fight Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in court over the imposition of carbon pricing if provinces don’t have their own way of doing it.