• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
BREAKING: UN Nature Summit, the ‘Paris Conference for Biodiversity’, Moves to Montreal in December June 19, 2022
‘LET’S SUE BIG OIL’: Legal Team Launches Class Action Campaign for B.C. Municipalities June 17, 2022
‘It Could Have Been Any of Us’, Colleague Says, After Brazil Confirms Murders of Bruno Pereira, Dom Phillips June 17, 2022
Infrastructure Gap a ‘Life and Death’ Matter as Northern Canada Warms June 17, 2022
Ban Fossil Fuel Ads Like Tobacco Promos, Doctors Urge Ottawa June 10, 2022
Next
Prev
Home Jurisdictions Canada

Ontario Cuts Energy Efficiency, Talks Generalities on Climate in ‘Most Anti-Environment Budget Since Walkerton’

April 14, 2019
Reading time: 3 minutes
Primary Author: The Energy Mix Staff

Bruce Reeve/Flickr

Bruce Reeve/Flickr

65
SHARES
 

The Doug Ford government in Ontario released a budget last week that allocates job creation incentive funds for clean energy investments but cuts program funding for electricity conservation, even though the province could face electricity shortages as early as 2023.

The budget commits no designated funding to the climate plan unveiled earlier this year by Environment Minister Rod Phillips, but includes unspecified dollars for a long-overdue climate vulnerability assessment, and for performance standards for industrial greenhouse gas emitters, states David McLaughlin, climate change director-Canada at the International Institute for Sustainable Development. “The good news, therefore, is that the government appears committed to what it already announced. Nothing added but nothing subtracted either. The question now becomes, when do they act and how much money will they actually commit to it?” he writes.

The government is also “proposing a C$3.8-billion Ontario Job Creation Investment Incentive, part of which will go towards clean technology investments in Ontario, such as wind turbines, solar panels, and electric vehicle chargers,” National Observer reports. “It was not clear from the budget what percentage of the fund would go to these investments, or to what sector.”

In a budget document where only six out of 343 pages were devoted to environment policies, the province cut budgets for the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks by 35%, and for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry by 14%, for a combined reduction of $461 million.

“Much of the budget focused on strengthening the business environment, making 47 references to the federal carbon tax and the province’s fight against it,” Observer notes, without ever mentioning the carbon tax rebates coming back to Ontarians from the federal government.

“The gutting of the Ontario’s climate action plan in combination with the taxpayer-financed partisan campaign against federal climate action expose a government that is deeply in denial on the urgency of the climate crisis,” said Greenpeace Canada Senior Energy Strategist Keith Stewart, who called the release “the most anti-environmental budget in Ontario since the deadly tainted-water disaster in Walkerton.”

“How are they going to come close to achieving goals they have in their climate plan with such a substantial decrease in funding?” asked Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner.

At Efficiency Canada, meanwhile, Policy Director Brendan Haley says the budget entrenches a $200-million cut for energy efficiency programming.

In their platform for last year’s provincial election, he writes, the Conservatives made an ill-considered promise to move electricity conservation programs to the tax base, but costed the commitment at $433 million, roughly the budget for conservation and demand management programs under the previous government. Then on March 21, the government announced it was winding down those programs and cutting funding to about $200 million per year through the end of next year.

The remaining question was whether tax funds would be used to fill in the gap. “The budget did not provide any new funding,” Haley writes. “Which means these are real program cuts, which is not what the government promised in the election.” The results: higher costs for Ontario electricity consumers, and higher greenhouse gas emissions.

IISD’s McLaughlin comments that “populism and climate change discomfort resides in this budget. “When it comes to the words ‘climate change’, Ford’s Progressive Conservatives would rather you heard the words ‘carbon tax’,” which receives far more mentions. “At the same time they are railing against the federal carbon tax, they are demanding approval—in the form of equivalency—from the federal government for its emissions performance standards for Ontario industry.”

Overall, he says the budget “reinforces the current carbon and climate ‘phoney war’ now being fought across Canada between conservative provincial governments and the Liberal federal government. It seems clear that it will take the federal election this fall (and perhaps a court case or two in Saskatchewan and Ontario) to truly determine the pace and scale of climate action in the country. Ontario is content not to lead the way.”



in Canada, Carbon Levels & Measurement, Community Climate Finance, Demand & Efficiency, Energy Politics, Sub-National Governments

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Jason Woodhead/Flickr
Pipelines / Rail Transport

Trans Mountain Pipeline On Track to Lose $600 Million, Parliamentary Budget Officer Finds

June 24, 2022
312
Ben_Kerckx/Pixabay
Petrochemicals & Plastics

Plastics Cited as ‘Fossil Industry’s Plan B’ as Guilbeault Announces Partial Ban

June 24, 2022
193
TAFE SA TONSLEY/Flickr
International Agencies & Studies

Clean Energy Investment to Exceed $1.4T This Year, Still Falls Short of Climate Goals: IEA

June 24, 2022
93

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

The federal government's Cliff Street Power Plant is at the centre of Ottawa's plans to reduce natural gas demand. Photo: PWGSC

EXCLUSIVE: Ontario Regulator Refuses New Pipeline, Tells Enbridge to Plan for Lower Gas Demand

May 30, 2022
5.1k
Jason Woodhead/Flickr

Trans Mountain Pipeline On Track to Lose $600 Million, Parliamentary Budget Officer Finds

June 24, 2022
312
Ben_Kerckx/Pixabay

Plastics Cited as ‘Fossil Industry’s Plan B’ as Guilbeault Announces Partial Ban

June 24, 2022
193
Bruce Reeve/Flickr

Opinion: Ontario’s New ‘Carbon Tax’ Looks Like the One Doug Ford Fought

June 7, 2022
1.6k
zephylwer0/pixabay

North American Steel, Aluminium Giants Lumber Toward Green Transition

June 24, 2022
164
Michael and Diane Weidner/Unsplash

Scientists, Politicians Debate Ethics of ‘Climate Tinkering’

June 7, 2022
72

Recent Posts

Erik Whalen/wikimedia commons

Yellowstone Park Reopens, But Flood Recovery Could Take Years, Cost Billions

June 24, 2022
73
TAFE SA TONSLEY/Flickr

Clean Energy Investment to Exceed $1.4T This Year, Still Falls Short of Climate Goals: IEA

June 24, 2022
93
Nemaska Lithium/Facebook

Critical Minerals, Hydrogen Lead Ottawa’s Low-Carbon Industry Strategy

June 24, 2022
79
Cjp24/Wikimedia Commons

UK Green Shift Won’t Repeat Job Destruction of Deindustrialization, Report Finds

June 24, 2022
36
/PxFul

Canadian Farmers Offer Ottawa a Roadmap to Cut Agriculture Emissions

June 24, 2022
92
Pavlofox/Pixabay

Millions Face Famine as Climate Disasters, Ukraine War Slash Food Supplies

June 24, 2022
48
Next Post
Calgary Herald/Twitter

Analysis: Alberta Misses Out on Grown-Up Conversation About Fossil Transition

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}