Province Ensuring People Have a Say While Continuing Calls to Scrap the Federal Carbon Tax
A News Release from the Constituency Office of Niagara West Ford Conservative MPP Sam Oosterhoff
Posted February 13th, 2024 on Niagara At Large
Niagara West Conservative MPP Sam Oosterhoff
BEAMSVILLE in Niagara, Ontario – The Ontario government is keeping costs down for people by introducing legislation that, if passed, would give Ontario voters a direct say over a new provincial carbon tax, cap-and-trade system, or other carbon pricing program.
This proposed legislation would protect people and businesses from the high costs of a provincial carbon tax by requiring the government to first obtain the consent of Ontario voters through a referendum before implementing a new provincial carbon pricing program.
“I hear often from local business owners, workers and families about how much the carbon tax is costing them when they fill up for gas or heat their homes,” said Sam Oosterhoff, MPP for Niagara West.
“They are frustrated – and rightly so. Only Doug Ford and the PC government are fighting to keep costs down for working families.”
“With the Bank of Canada’s high interest rates and the cost of living still so high, it’s never been more important to keep costs down for people and businesses,” said Hon. Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has campaigned relentlessly since he first became premier to kill anything that looks like a tax on carbon emissions. Here he is fighting that battle in front of some gas pumps in 2019.
“I’ve always said, the carbon tax is the worst tax. It increases the cost of everything. We need to protect Ontario workers and families from the high cost of a carbon tax and we urge the federal government to do the same.”
The Ontario government continues to urge the federal government to apply the same carve out on home heating that was provided to Atlantic Canadian provinces or to eliminate the federal carbon tax entirely.
“We made a promise to fight the federal carbon tax and our government will continue to lead by example, giving Ontarians certainty that carbon pricing on the backs of taxpayers is not the way forward,” said Hon. Peter Bethlenfalvy, Minister of Finance.
“Any new provincial carbon tax is unacceptable for Ontario residents who are seeing their hard-earned dollars stretched further than ever.”
This measure is part of upcoming legislation that will kick off the spring sitting of the legislature on February 20, 2024. The Get It Done Act will include a host of measures that, if passed, would build on the government’s commitments to date to streamline approvals for major infrastructure projects and housing, keep costs down for people and businesses and support economic growth for long-term prosperity.
Quick Facts:
* To help Ontario families and businesses keep costs down, the government extended the gas and fuel tax rate cuts through to June 30, 2024. Along with the rate cuts previously in place, this extension is expected to save households $260 on average since the cuts were first implemented in July 2022.
* In compliance with the federal Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, two forms of carbon pricing currently exist in Ontario: The Emissions Performance Standards (EPS) program for industrial emitters, and the federal fuel charge, which increases the cost of various types of transportation and heating fuels used by households and enterprises, including gasoline, diesel, natural gas, and propane.
* Since 2005, Ontario has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by a greater amount than any other province or territory in Canada – over fifty mega tonnes, equal to taking over fifteen million cars off the road.
Additional Resources:
* Ontario Extending Gas and Fuel Tax Cuts to June 30, 2024<https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/1003718/ontario-extending-gas-and-fuel-tax-cuts-to-june-30-2024>
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Niagara At Large 
No worries. I LOVE breathing forest fire smoke all summer due to climate change caused by the continued use of fossil fuels.
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The use of a referendum is political cowardice in the extreme, especially by couching it in the notion that we will have a say on a key public policy matter. The government is supposed to know what the electorate wants, as well as what is in the public interest (vs. narrow, special interests). That is the basic function of representative government.
But then again, given that the Ford Government continues to get burned by its attempts to take Ontario in directions that voters didn’t ask for (and for which the Government may have even promised not to do…like the Greenbelt fiasco), as it continues to try to coddle special interests such as land speculators or fossil fuel enthusiasts, this is a new tack.
What this move tells us is that Mr. Ford et al are deathly afraid that the public may be on side for a carbon pricing regime such as that promoted by the federal government, especially as the majority of Ontarians receive a net financial benefit (a little tidbit that invariably fails to make it into the PC’s rhetoric about a ‘tax’). Yet this time, they won’t have to retract or reverse course, they will simply say they are following the will of the people…which one would think is their role anyway…
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Why is is soooo difficult for our politicians to follow the extremely well documented environmental science of 30+ years and collaborate TOGETHER on the safest, healthiest way to meet targets and mitigate impacts of climate change. It is our children’s future what could ever be more important. Time to STOP pandering to big, unethical corporations who only think of their bottom line. SO OVERDUE!!! We must live by peoples best interests in our communities, not big business goal to continue to increase profits at our expense and exploitation.
We are living real-time climate change and the Conservative governments continue to fight and deny the evidence
THe other parties, Greens, NDP, Liberals, Bloc, who are ‘mostly’ agreeable on climate change strategies and meeting targets and then we have the CONSERVATIVES.
I am so so tired of partisan governments while our planet is on fire. It is criminal to take such risk with our future.
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