The Ford government’s new climate plan for Ontario will cost taxpayers half again as much as the federal carbon tax, according to a new analysis released yesterday by Canadians for Clean Prosperity.
“The Clean Prosperity report found that the Ontario plan would be more expensive largely because it would ‘cherry-pick’ certain sources of emissions to cut and would cost C$334 million in 2022, or $62 per tonne of greenhouse gas emissions removed. The federal plan would cost $214 million in 2022, or $40 per tonne,” Canada.Com reports. “Much of the additional cost would be passed down to consumers, the report said, raising annual household expenses in Ontario by an average $80 in 2022, rising to $154 in 2030.”
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The cost factors added up by economists Dave Sawyer and Seton Stiebert of EnviroEconomics included a carbon tax on heavy emitters, a $400-million clean technologies fund, a plan to introduce E15 ethanol blends, and supports for electric vehicle adoption.
“Large emitters look to be overcompensated, on average, by $298 million in 2022 and $78 million in 2030,” the two researchers concluded, even as they pass costs down to the consumer. They recommended cutting the cost of the provincial plan by extending the provincial carbon tax to gasoline and diesel distributors.
