The Ontario Liberals promised Tuesday to cut greenhouse gas emissions by strengthening standards for industry, banning new natural gas plants, providing electric vehicle rebates and offering grants for eco-friendly renovations.
Their target is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
Leader Steven Del Duca acknowledged that the federal carbon tax would “go a long way” toward hitting those targets — the Liberal plan shows more than half of those reductions coming from federal initiatives — but said it’s important for the province to act as well.
Read more:
Ontario Liberals pledge reducing transit fares to $1 if elected in June
“As large as the climate crisis challenge, or emergency, is — and it’s huge — we need every level of government actively engaged and partnering to deliver,” he said.
“What we’ve had over the last four years is a federal government that’s at the table and is taking meaningful action and almost all of Ontario’s municipalities doing the same or trying to. Only one level of government’s been missing.”
Del Duca touted the provincial Liberal record from the party’s previous 15-year stretch in government, including closing coal-fired power plants, creating the protected Greenbelt and introducing a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
But Del Duca said he would not reintroduce cap and trade because of the federal carbon tax backstop that is now in place.
The NDP has also promised to halve emissions levels by 2030 and get to net zero by 2050, but a New Democratic government would establish a new cap-and-trade system.
“We’ve really got a robust plan and it’s something I’m very, very proud of,” NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said.
“Look, Steven Del Duca’s Liberals know they chopped into the Greenbelt something like 17 times when they were in office, so I think he better be thoughtful about his own past performance.”
Former Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne has said they approved 17 minor variances out of more than 600 requests for adjustments.
Read more:
ANALYSIS: Why the Ontario election is one that all of Canada should watch
The Liberals’ new environmental plan also includes a proposal, announced Monday, to reduce transit fares to $1 per ride across the province.
Del Duca is promising unspecified strengthened requirements of industrial emitters, and to reinvest and match all proceeds into grants, tax credits and loan guarantees through a Green Jobs Fund to support made-in-Ontario clean technology.
The Liberals say they would put $9 billion over four years into a clean economy plan, creating 25,000 new green jobs and the Green Jobs Fund.
The plan would also ban new natural gas plants, expand the Greenbelt and designate 30 per cent of Ontario land as protected — up from 10 per cent — and provide grants of up to $3,000 each year for people and businesses for green renovations such as new windows, heat pumps and flood protection.