“We have a mandate from the people of Ontario to use every tool at our disposal to protect Ontario families and businesses from the federal carbon tax.” – Ford’s Ontario Environment Minister, Rod Phillips
Doug Draper, reporter and publisher, Niagara At Large
Posted September 14th, 2018 on Niagara At Large
The same Ontario Premier Doug Ford who is over-riding Canadian’s constitutional rights and freedoms to settle old political scores by slashing the size of the Toronto city council he and his late brother once raised havoc on, is now citing sections of Canada’s Constitution as an excuse for cancelling the province’s “cap-and-trade” program (what Ford strategically refers to as a “carbon tax”) for reducing carbon emissions that contribute to climate change.
The irony of this might only be lost on people who were foolish enough to vote for Ford on an assumption that he had well-thought-out plans for making positive change in Ontario.
At the end of a week of chaos of his own making over the over-riding of Canada’s Charter rights and freedoms to strike out against his political enemies on Toronto council, Ford has filed arguments in the courts (see the Ford government’s news release blow for more details) against the cap-and-trade program Ontario’s former Liberal government launched to reduce carbon emissions.
The filing, which does not come as a surprise from a Ford government that obviously believes man-made climate change is a joke, also comes at the end of the same week that Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, warned that too many nations are falling back on the pledge they made through the Paris Accord, to a point where there is a “paralysis” in the overall effort to reduce climate changing gases.
“Climate change is the defining issue of our time, and we are at a defining moment,” he added during an address at the U.N. headquarters in New York. “Scientists have been telling us for decades. Over and over again. Far too many leaders have refused to listen.”
Then the punch line from the U.N. head – “If we do not change course by 2020, we risk missing the point where we can avoid runaway climate change.”
Of course whatever hell on earth climate change may wrought, the mostly older Ontarians who voted in disproportionate numbers for Ford don’t have too much longer to worry about it because they are close to punching out.
It is left to mostly younger generations to fight the Doug Fords of this world and his supporters and environmental groups like Greenpeace which, thankfully, filed its own court action this month against the Ford government’s move to tear up the cap-and-trade program.
Now here is the Ford government’s September 14th news release, outlining its court case against the program –
| News Release
Ontario Files Arguments to Challenge the Federal Government’s Carbon Tax September 14, 2018 Toronto – Today, Ontario’s Government for the People took the next step in its fight against the federal government’s plan to impose a carbon tax on Ontario families and businesses. Rod Phillips, Minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks, announced that the government has filed a statement with the Court of Appeal summarizing the arguments it will make challenging the constitutionality of the federal government’s Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act.
This is part of the government’s efforts to put money back in the pockets of the hard-working people of Ontario. The province’s position in court will be that the federal act imposes an unconstitutional tax on Ontarians because:
“We have a mandate from the people of Ontario to use every tool at our disposal to protect Ontario families and businesses from the federal carbon tax,” said Minister Phillips. “A carbon tax has nothing to do with the environment and everything to do with increasing government revenue. It will drive up the cost of gas, home heating fuel and everyday items for people across this province.” This fall, the government will be introducing an integrated made-in-Ontario environmental plan that will fight climate change and keep our air, land and waters clean for future generations. Ontario will continue to be a leader in protecting the environment while respecting and protecting taxpayers. |
| ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Ontario announces constitutional challenge to federal government’s punishing carbon tax scheme. |
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