Dear Editor:
Less than two weeks after a series of public consultations, many of them attended by members of the Wellington-Halton Hills Citizens’ Climate Lobby, Ontario’s Liberal government announced a ‘cap + trade’ deal with Quebec to fight climate change.
We in CCL favour a ‘carbon fee + dividend’ approach that will, yes, raise the price of fossil fuels, but return all the revenue equally to Ontario households, not have it disappear down a black hole! This will especially help lower and middle income Ontarians as we transition to the green, low-carbon economy in order to stabilize the world’s climate over the next dozen decades or so.
Kathleen Wynne’s government has promised it will be conducting more public consultations in the next six months. This is good news because without grassroots support – yours and mine – the long term political will for any carbon pricing system – cap + trade, carbon fee + dividend or any other – is likely crippled and perhaps doomed.
The cap + trade deal between Ontario and Quebec is a good first step and should be celebrated because it has opened up the public conversation on carbon pricing, which is long, long overdue.
Our kids and grandchildren need us to succeed in getting off fossil fuels, and getting this right, so let’s deliver the best possible solution to them!
Liz Armstrong