December 1, 2016
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Rather than address the financial problems with the Cap-and-Trade scheme, as identified Wednesday by Ontario's Auditor General (AG), provincial environment minister Glen Murray continues to deny the impact this misguided scheme will have on the budgets of families and businesses, says Huron-Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson, Progressive Conservative (PC) critic for environment and Cap-and-Trade.
Thompson put the minister in the hot seat Thursday when she questioned him about the fact that the Ontario government's cash grab will do nothing but take more money out of the pockets of hard-working Ontarians and drive investment and business from the province.
Murray attempted to dodge the question, saying the numbers in the Climate Change Action Plan were the work of economists, not him. His response comes after months of the Liberal government claiming credit for the development of the plan, which countless worried stakeholders have indicated continues to lack key details, said Thompson.
"Minister Murray can't refute the AG's conclusions, and it is his signature on the Climate Change Action Plan for goodness sake," said Thompson. "When the Liberals don't like what an independent legislative officer has to say, they try to discredit that individual in some way, or attempt to pass the buck to avoid criticism."
Most concerning about the AG's findings, said Thompson, was the fact that the bulk of the money being spent by Ontarians on the Liberals' Cap-and-Trade scheme will be sent outside of Ontario to California and Quebec, to the tune of $466-million by 2020, and the only emissions being reduced will be in California and Quebec.
"It seems the Liberals are dead set on bankrupting Ontarians while they raise money to cover their 13 years of waste and mismanagement," said Thompson. "It's time the premier Kathleen Wynne and her government stopped using Ontarians as her personal ATM machine, and started doing more to put money back in their pockets."
See Thompson's question here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuhZvbxJeF8&
Wednesday, the AG confirmed that the Cap-and-Trade scheme will do nothing to effectively reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions, while raking in billions of dollars off the backs of hard-working Ontarians, Thompson said.
"The Liberals have been failing for years to get their ducks in order on the environment file," she said. "The fact that the AG conducted three money-for-value audits and found the ministry of the environment and climate change to be performing sub-optimally in each of them, is proof that the Liberals are more interested in raising money to pay for their waste and mismanagement, rather than finding economical solutions to protecting our environment and our economy."
In her report, the AG identified that $1-billion had been earmarked for previously-announced projects, confirming concerns from the Ontario PC Party and the Financial Accountability Officer that the Liberals will seek to balance the budget with Cap-and-Trade funds, rather than dedicate them to new projects designed to reduce emissions.
"The Liberals are playing shell games to cover years of their waste and mismanagement and it's time they come clean with Ontarians," said Thompson. "They need to immediately commit to ensuring the money raised off this scheme goes toward reducing emissions and costs for Ontario businesses and families."
The AG's report identified that Cap-and-Trade will achieve only 3.8-megatonnes (Mt) of emissions reductions, or just 20 per cent of the necessary 18.7-Mt needed to meet the government's 2020 targets. As a result, the government will attempt to count emissions reductions in California and Quebec to account for the additional 80 per cent of reductions it will need.
The AG also raised concerns that beyond the $8-billion the Liberals plan to raise, Ontario businesses will be expected to purchase $466-million worth of allowances from Quebec and California emitters between 2017 and 2020, which will do nothing to contribute to reductions in Ontario. This additional expenditure is expected to rise to $2.2-billion by 2030.
In a separate audit, the report identified serious concerns with compliance and monitoring practices by the environment ministry on environmental approvals, finding that 80 per cent of emitters have never been inspected for compliance, and that the ministry is unsure of how many of more than 200,000 emitters are still operating, relying on complaints from the public to identify health and environment risks.
The Auditor General's Annual Report can be found at the following link: www.auditor.on.ca/en/content/annualreports/arbyyear/ar2016.html#volume1
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